


Let There Be Light

by Rasalahuge



Series: Let There Be Light [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Aerial manouvers, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angel True Forms, Bickering, Chuck is God, Crack, Dean has a Fear of Flying, Demons with Souls, Discussion of Torture, Flying, Free Will, Gabriel Lives, Gen, Hell, Mark of Cain, Parkour, Rituals, Season/Series 11, Souls, TV Land, Team Free Will, The seven circles of Hell (sort of), falling, gratuitous pop culture references, the death of Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-01
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-18 12:15:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 23,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4705643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rasalahuge/pseuds/Rasalahuge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The moment the Darkness manifested on this plane of existence after millions of years of captivity a Being who had most recently been known as Chuck Shurley swore and dematerialised.</p><p>Season 11: Fighting the Darkness, Crack Edition.</p><p>18/10: Epilogue now added!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Started writing this when I saw the season finale, just wanted to finish it before posting (for once) and somehow managed to before the new season started (go me!). This story is 90% crack, 5% character development and plot and 5% gratuitous swearing and violence, consider yourself warned.
> 
> As a side note, I dislike spoilers except for the occasional promo pic so this is written with no knowledge of anything leaked about Season 11 (please don't spoil me).

The Darkness.

Under other circumstances one might muse on how the Darkness, the origin of everything evil in Creation, looked remarkably like the smoke that was formed from corrupted human souls when manifesting on this plane of existence after millions of years of captivity.

Under other circumstances the Darkness wouldn’t _be_ manifesting on this plane of existence after millions of years of captivity.

“For fucks sake,” A Being who had most recently been known as Chuck Shurley swore and dematerialised.

For Sam and Dean Winchester the few seconds it took for the Darkness to reach them went a little like this. Dean tried desperately to get the Impala out of the hole her back wheel had slipped into. Sam stared at the approaching black cloud with something approaching horror and the sinking feeling that he’d been in this situation before, only this time it was a whole lot worse. A bright, strangely familiar, light erupted into their vision.

The Winchester’s blinked and opened their eyes to find themselves in a warded warehouse, the Impala sat next to them spotless and undamaged. In front of them a rabid looking Castiel approached a frozen Crowley until a supposedly-dead Prophet stepped forward, disarmed the angel with a flick of his wrist and removed Rowena’s spells with a quiet glare.

“Uh… What the fuck just happened?” Dean, predictably, found his voice first.

“Chuck?” Sam added as Castiel looked up from the floor and froze with utter terror on his face.

“So,” Chuck looked from one to another, “Congratulations Team Free Will. You just screwed us all,”

“ _Father?!_ ” Castiel breathed out with wide eyes.

There was a moment of silence as the penny dropped.

“Holy shit,” Crowley summed the situation up neatly.


	2. In Which Chuck is Not Impressed and Dean Should Really Shut Up Now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention this will be updated everyday so that it's finished by the time the new season starts? Because it will be. Also if you want a sneak peak at later chapters come visit my [ tumblr ](http://rasalahuge.tumblr.com/)

“Wait? Chuck is God?” Dean blurted out disbelievingly even as Chuck hauled Castiel to his feet and shoved him into a chair that wasn’t there a minute ago.

“Dean,” Chuck turned to him with a black stare, “Do us all a favour and shut the fuck up,” The two hunters found themselves sat in chairs on either side of Castiel before they could even blink. The prophet who may-or-may-not be God turned then to Crowley who looked understandably panicked. “Crowley, nice to finally meet you. Good job with Hell,” Chuck stepped forward, “But I’m sorry I’m going to have to take it off you again. Lucifer’s going to throw a strop as it is without me having to tell him he can’t have his playground back.”

“What?” The demon frowned, “What are you talking about?”

“Lucifer, Hell.” Chuck repeated, “I know you’re in shock Crowley but I really need you to keep up. We don’t have time for you to have a mental breakdown right now.” Crowley blinked, grimaced, and then straightened slightly.

“You’re God?” he clarified.

“Yes, well done,” Chuck confirmed earning a small whimper from the two humans and their angel behind him.

“And you’re going to take Hell from me and give it back to Lucifer? Why?” Crowley’s eyes narrowed, “Also unless I’m mistaken you can’t give Hell to him while he’s locked up, which seems to imply you’re going to let him _out_. After everything we did to put him _in_ that Cage,”

“Yes, I know. It’s extremely irritating.” Chuck grimaced, “Everything turned out so nicely, things were going well but then,” he huffed in clear annoyance, “ _Someone_ didn’t take the out they were given,” He turned and glared at the two hunters who visibly quailed. “Seriously? I arrange things so nicely to let you wield Free Will into stopping the Apocalypse in its tracks and _this_ is what you choose to do with it?”

“Uh… sorry,” Sam offered looking just about as contrite as he could possibly be.

“Yes _now_ you are,” Chuck huffed again and turned back to Crowley. “Look, I loved the changes you were making to Hell. Really. They should have been made centuries ago but Lilith and Azazel were not only assholes but also really, really unimaginative. I wouldn’t be doing this if I had another option but unfortunately my hand is being forced. Again.”

“Wait a second; _your_ hand is being forced?” Dean’s temper, with its recent hair trigger snapped. “What about us? Where the fuck have _you_ been all these years? Leaving us to…” he choked suddenly, sharply as Chuck turned his eyes towards Dean.

“Dean I think I told you to shut _up_ ,” Chuck said shortly letting his eyes narrow. There was something in his demeanour that changed then, some blanket of Power. Those grey eyes suddenly burned silver. “I realise you’ve been through a lot recently and that even if the Mark is gone you’ve been badly damaged by it. However you also just killed my best friend so I’m actually rather pissed at you right now.” His eyes flickered away from Dean then to Castiel and he sighed.

“Look,” Chuck turned more fully towards them. “I get it. I do. Omniscience is kinda my thing, remember? But there was a point to all this and you three used to know that, better than anyone. Free Will. The chance to choose your own path.” He sighed, quiet and infinitely sad, “Problem is how can you have Free Will if you also have an omniscient and omnipotent God? How is it a choice when there’s nothing to choose between? With me around there’s only one path, _my_ path. So I stopped getting involved. Let you all pick your own way forward. Humans got pretty good at it after a while, angels less so but that was my fault.” He shrugged, “Why do you think so many religious writings are screwed up? It’s all hypocrisy and contradictions and impossible rules. Because as much as I want my children to know me I also want them to _choose_ to know me,” He smiled soft and impossible, “I want them to choose to love me as much as I love them. It’s not worth it otherwise.”

“Nice words. What does this have to do with letting the Devil out of his box?” Crowley interrupted.

“Because the game has changed.” Chuck answered looking back at the demon. “The rule book just got torn up. You idiots just let the Darkness free and, to make matters worse, Dean here killed Death. There are only two paths now. One that leads to the whole of Creation tearing itself apart or one that wipes the slate clean.” Chuck closed his eyes. “It’s time to reset the clock. And I’m sorry,” He turned back this time his eyes fixed on Castiel. “I really am. Castiel, I am _so, so_ sorry. I’m going to ruin all your hard work but I swear. I swear on everything I hold dear, which is basically everything in existence except the thing we’re going to fight, that I’ll start again. It’ll probably take a few millennia to get this far once more but I _will_ make sure everyone has Free Will again,”

“You’re going to take control back again,” Sam whispered and Chuck nodded.

“I am.” He said, “I’ll take control back and I’ll fight the Darkness as I did before, but to do that I need my weapons.”

“The archangels,” Castiel whispered.

“The archangels,” Chuck nodded and then turned back to Crowley. “Here, catch,” He tossed something at the demon who caught it automatically.

It was a ring. Or more precisely it was four rings attached together to make a cross.

“The keys to the Cage,” Crowley murmured.

“I need to fetch Gabriel back from his vacation so if you could let Lucifer and Michael out I’d be grateful. Don’t worry, they’ll have felt the Darkness being released, they’ll know I sent you,” Chuck said and Crowley swallowed.

“And if I don’t?” he asked and Chuck looked at him sadly.

“Crowley do you really think you can say no to _me_?” Chuck asked even as Crowley slipped the rings in his pocket and reached for his coat.

“Why am I getting ready to leave?” Crowley asked looking confused, though he didn’t stop moving.

“Because I asked you to,” Chuck said sadly. “As I said, I am sorry. But as of right now Free Will no longer exists,” The King of Hell looked briefly alarmed but then he was gone leaving two hunters and an angel in a warehouse with God.


	3. Archangels for dummies: Gabriel never takes things seriously, Lucifer is egocentric and Michael looms

“Father,” Castiel said with eyes that spoke fathoms, “How can I help?”

Chuck regarded him silently for a long moment and then sighed.

“Well you’re not quite ready, but then I suppose hoping you would be was rather optimistic even for me,” Chuck said and then snapped his fingers. Castiel inhaled sharply, “You’re little exploding trick with Raphael has left me one archangel short so you’re going to have to fill in. I don’t have the time to search the cosmos for every wavelength of energy with Raphael’s signature and stitch him back together.”

“I… what?” Castiel gasped, his entire being flickering with power.

“Go to Heaven,” Chuck continued as if he hadn’t heard the angel… archangel. “I fixed your wings so that won’t be an issue. Gather the angels left and bring them here, I don’t care what you say to get them here just do it.” Between one blink and another Castiel had stood and disappeared in a flap of invisible wings.

“And us?” Sam asked softly.

“Stay there, don’t move.” Chuck said and then vanished.

For a long moment Sam and Dean just sat in silence, breathing. Then they looked at one another.

“Shit,” Dean breathed.

“Uh… yeah,” Sam agreed.

“I think we should have taken Death’s offer,” Dean was visibly shaking.

“Uh… maybe,” Sam murmured.

“I didn’t realise you guys were so close to removing the Mark,” Dean whispered and Sam winced.

“I was here when Rowena translated the spell but…” He trailed off not finishing. “Dean did we just pull a Lilith? _Again_?”

“Oh no,” An unimpressed and unwelcome voice intruded. “No. Killing Lilith just released me. What you two just did was _much, much_ worse,” Lucifer stalked forward, his face frozen with anger. At his shoulder Michael stood, tall and foreboding and just as utterly pissed. “Do you two _morons_ have _any_ idea what you just did?”

“Starting to get an idea yeah,” Dean spoke up and tried to get out of his seat to get away from the pissed off Devil. Unfortunately Chuck had ordered them not to move and so neither human could move from their seats. In the back of the room Crowley winced.

“No. You don’t.” Michael said quietly. “You can’t understand. Can’t comprehend. What you released exists beyond all possible mortal recognition.”

“Let’s be honest bro, it’s pretty much beyond us too,” A third voice interrupted as Gabriel strolled in, as casual as ever, sucking on an ice pop. “I mean we’re just the nukes Dad fires at this thing. Nukes don’t know what it is they’re hitting, just that they’re hitting it,” He glanced at Lucifer and then the Winchesters with a sardonic expression. “You know what? I think I preferred the Apocalypse. Nice work kids,” He informed them.

“Didn’t I stab you?” Lucifer turned to Gabriel with a puzzled look.

“ _Please_ ,” Gabriel scoffed, “You think you taught me _all_ my tricks? Talk about egocentric Lucy.”

“Clearly,” Lucifer’s eyes narrowed, “I won’t be making that mistake again,” He took half a step forward threateningly before he drew to a sharp halt as if he’d hit a wall.

“You won’t be doing _anything again_ if you attempt to harm your brother Lucifer,” Chuck said mildly. He had reappeared with a _very_ contrite looking Metatron at his side hugging the demon tablet to his chest. “I need four archangels to lock the Darkness away again. Test me and I’ll make Sam Winchester the fourth I need,” it was a warning and a promise. Lucifer glared mutinously at Chuck but visibly backed down.

“That applies to all of you,” Chuck added when Gabriel attempted to look smug and Michael loomed. “The best thing about omnipotence is that everyone is replaceable.”

“I thought the best thing about omnipotence was being able to eat as much sugar as you wanted and never put on weight,” Gabriel, typically, broke the tension in the room looking for all the world as if he hadn’t just been threatened by the Devil and God in short order. Chuck’s lips twitched, briefly, before he turned his attention to the rest of the room.

“We’re just waiting on Castiel then. Good,” He nodded pleased and suddenly everyone was sat at a very large round table that somehow still had a chair at the head of it. Naturally this was where Chuck sat with the rest arrayed before him. “You all know why we’re here. Sam, Dean, Castiel and Crowley have done something extremely stupid.” Chuck glanced at the three in question who quailed under the glares of the archangels even as Metatron just snorted, clearly unsurprised. “Admittedly it was mostly Sam and Dean, Castiel and Crowley had no idea what would happen if they cast that spell. However blame has no place here. Under any other circumstance I’d be applauding their determination to stand by family; after all it is better than most here have managed,” That jab made the angels wince instead. “Probably they should have known better than to not listen to a warning from _Death himself_ but that’s neither here nor there. The Winchester’s have been ignoring that sort of advice for their entire lives. How this happened is irrelevant, fixing this is far more important. Michael, Lucifer, Gabriel,” Chuck fixed his eyes on the three of them. “You know what will be expected from you. I’d ask if you’re willing to go through with it but that would be unnecessarily cruel given that I have just revoked Free Will and you’ll be doing it whether you want to or not.”

“We will do anything you ask Father,” Michael said smoothly. “Who is taking Raphael’s place?”

“Castiel,” Chuck answered easily. “Also to make it inescapably clear and to avoid any and all fights over this: Hannah is my favourite right now. When I’ve restored things and re-invoked Free Will I’m grounding you all,”

“Hannah?!” Lucifer spluttered with a look of utter fury.

“Eh,” Gabriel shrugged, “She’s good people. Can’t complain,”

“Don’t you ever take anything seriously?” Michael hissed at him and Gabriel shrugged again and smirked.

“Nope,” He quipped.

“Boys,” Chuck said flatly before an argument could break out. The three archangels quietened though Michael and Lucifer didn’t stop shooting venomous glares at Gabriel who had materialised a large tub of popcorn and was munching his way through it. Chuck raised one eyebrow at him and Gabriel waggled both his eyebrows in return. Crowley, unable to resist any longer, snorted.

Before Michael and Lucifer could switch targets of their ire, which was probably a good thing for Crowley, a literal host of angels materialised in the warehouse.


	4. Chuck is a Master of Exposition and Hannah wins the award for 'Most Observant Angel in the Garrison'

“Father,” Castiel stepped towards the table not even batting an eyelid at the four archangels or Metatron, “I brought the host,” he bowed and Chuck nodded.

“Thank you. Go sit with your brothers,” He said and Castiel glanced over to the empty seat at the table between Gabriel and Dean. Gabriel winked even as Dean looked at him pleadingly.

“Come on Cassie, I’ll share my popcorn,” Gabriel said out loud and Castiel nodded and walked around the table. Behind him the host were staring at the situation with wide eyed amazement.

“Hannah,” Chuck called and the angel in question swallowed heavily but stepped forward.

“Father,” She bowed.

“Come sit beside me,” Chuck said and the angel stared with wide eyes. There were two empty seats either side Chuck. One was at his left and engraved with a scythe, its occupant inescapably clear and also notably absent. On Chuck’s right was a normal chair but it was one that was positioned above even Michael who sat one more seat to the right.

Hannah went, because one did not refuse God, but she sat nervously as her eyes flickered from Michael on her right and then around the rest of the table. Lucifer came after Michael, then Crowley, Sam, Dean, Castiel, Gabriel and finally Metatron sat next to Death’s empty chair. The scribe looked slightly unnerved by that but hadn’t said a word, likely he didn’t dare. Certainly he hadn’t let go of his tablet, clinging to it as though it were a teddy bear.

“First things first,” Chuck said once Hannah and Castiel were sat. “Castiel return Metatron’s Grace,” he commanded and then, after a slightly too long pause, added, “Please,”

Castiel looked from Chuck to Metatron and swallowed. The vial of Grace was pulled from a pocket and handed to Gabriel who passed it on. Metatron promptly unscrewed the lid and breathed the Grace in as it escaped.

“Free Will,” Chuck said as Metatron absorbed his Grace. “It’s why I left. It’s what the chaos of the last few years has been all about. It is, in fact, the whole reason I made this universe in the first place. It does, however, pose some rather serious consequences.”

“That’s an understatement,” Lucifer snorted and Chuck looked at him.

“I should be careful Lucifer. You’re already on thin ice and you don’t want me to remember that I charged you with _protecting_ the Mark, not handing it on to humans and leading us down this road in the first place,” he said and Lucifer’s eyes flashed in anger.

“You gave me that Mark knowing full well what it would do to me and anyone else who came into contact with it. I think that makes _you_ the ultimate reason this has happened,” he countered brilliant and angry and breath-taking.

“The choice was still yours,” Chuck answered, “You knew full well what would happen to Cain when you passed it on. You knew what would happen if anyone worked out how to remove it and break the spell. You might be arrogant Lucifer but even at your worst you were never stupid enough to think that releasing the Darkness was a good idea.”

“You’re right I didn’t think it was a good idea,” Lucifer retorted, “I just didn’t care that it was a bad one,”

“You…” Michael snarled moving to stand his eyes flashing dangerously at his brother.

“Michael. _Sit. Down_.” Chuck commanded and Michael sat, sharp and sudden. “The only weapons I’ll allow at this table are words and even then I have limits. Don’t push me. I am having a _very_ bad day.”

“Father?” Hannah whispered looking at him with wide eyes, “Are you alright?” Suddenly every eye in the room was on Hannah and then, in unison, flickered over to Chuck. It didn’t take long for everyone to notice the slight strain in his expression, the creases of stress in his brow, the trickle of sweat along his hair line.

“No Hannah. I’m not,” Chuck replied. “The Darkness has been free for more than an hour now and its power is rapidly growing. I have it pinned to the outskirts of the Universe right now but soon it’s going to break free. I plan on throwing anything and everything I have between it and us to buy us some time but I have rather less than I had before.” He raised his hands to rub at his temples. “Letting you destroy Dick Roman seemed like a good idea at the time but I could really do with a few dozen Leviathans right now,”

“Leviathans? Why?” Dean spoke up before he could think better of it.

“Leviathans were designed to eat _everything_ Dean,” Chuck informed him, “Including the Darkness. Alone they can’t stop it of course but they can, and did once, severely limit it,”

“You mean we won’t have the garbage cans to help?” Gabriel whined, “Fuck that’s not fair,” he glanced over at the Winchesters, “I guess that means Eve won’t be joining the party either,”

“No the Winchester’s killed her as well,” Chuck sighed. “A few dozen dragons would be a nice addition,”

“Do we have _anything_ left except us?” Michael asked quietly and Chuck glanced at him.

“Eve, Dick, the tablets, the line of prophets, the gates of Heaven, even Death…” He sighed heavily, “If I didn’t know any better I’d say the Darkness has been planning this for a while.”

“But you do know better… right?” Metatron spoke up for the first time and Chuck turned to look at his Scribe. “Right?”

“The Darkness is the anathema to everything I am. It is everything I am not.” He paused, “The three of us. The Darkness, Death and I… We are it. Everything in Creation, if you strip it back far enough, comes down to one of the three of us. It means however that we do not overlap. There is nothing of the Darkness in me and nothing of me in it. So no. I don’t know any better. The Darkness is where even my omniscience reaches its limits.”

“So it could have been planning this,” Sam said quietly, “Pushing things along, nudging here and there,”

“The same as I have been doing, yes.” Chuck answered, “All with the aim of being freed and having little opposition when it was.”

“So what do we do?” Castiel asked quietly.


	5. In which Lucifer and Crowley are offended and Dean is not a terrible tactician

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early update because I'm not going to be in later tonight. Enjoy.
> 
> Also apparently there is a promo out for season 11 (discussion of it is all over my tumblr dashboard :/ ). I reiterate what i said in the first chapter - I DON'T want to know. Keep me spoiler free pretty please.

“The same way Lucifer’s Cage is bound by four rings the Darkness was sealed by four Archangels,” Chuck leant back in his seat addressing not just those at the table but the host stood further back watching and listening silently. “No doubt the Darkness believes that I’m down to two, and two who are far more likely to blow the planet up while killing each other than help me.” He didn’t even glance in the direction of Michael or Lucifer but the two of them shot each other a glare. Clearly a few centuries in the Cage together had _not_ improved their relationship any. “I may have helped Gabriel disappear more thoroughly than he’d manage alone and I’ve been preparing Castiel to become an Archangel for a while. So long as the Darkness does not know that I have them it will be vulnerable however it took a great deal last time to even get close enough to seal it and most of what we need no longer exists.”

“Can’t you bring them back?” Sam asked, “I mean, how many times have you resurrected Cas by now?”

“Too many,” Chuck said mildly. “But I have to have priorities. Resurrecting one angel can pass unnoticed. Resurrecting Dick Roman or Eve or Raphael would not only take time but also will attract attention to what I’m planning. Death even I cannot resurrect which is going to cause _problems_ but we’ll deal with that later. Assuming there is a later.”

“So we just have to get the archangels close enough to this thing and they can seal it away again?” Dean clarified.

“You say that as though it’s easy,” Lucifer frowned in his direction. “Let me assure you Dean, it’s anything but,”

“It is considerably stronger than any of us baring Father,” Michael intruded smoothly, “And it knows how we work, knows our tactics and can prepare for them,”

“Well yeah,” Dean snorted, “if you’re going after it the same way you did last time. But why would you do that? You said it probably doesn’t know about Gabriel and Cas right? But it’ll be wary of Chuck resurrecting Raphael and Gabriel so he can seal it away again. If I were an unspeakable, unfathomable evil thing that just got my freedom first thing I’d do is ensure it,”

“And how would you do that?” Michael asked condescendingly.

“By coming after you and Lucifer, obviously,” Dean scoffed right back. “Two seals down, two to go. I bet when Chuck stops holding it back it goes straight for the Cage, so long of course that we don’t give it any clue that you two dicks are no longer there,”

“We know where it’ll be going, especially if we give it an incentive, and it won’t know to expect Cassie and I to come up behind,” Gabriel caught onto what Dean was trying to say.

“I’m sure I can arrange for Hell to be at its most confusing,” Crowley intruded smoothly, “So as to mask the presence of four rather than two archangels.”

“The host can lead an assault,” Hannah added softly, “To give the appearance of trying to keep it from Michael and Lucifer while Father attempts to resurrect the last two piece of the puzzle.”

“I know where Balthazar hid most of Heaven’s weapons,” Castiel said quietly, “I’m sure there’s something useful in there.”

“And the tablets might be destroyed, for the most part, but I may have made copies,” Metatron admitted, “Couldn’t do anything about the power from the tablets themselves but the information on them isn’t lost.”

“Coupled with what’s in the Men of Letter’s Bunker and we probably have the biggest collection of spells and rituals that’s ever existed,” Sam added eagerly, “There’s bound to be some way of creating something that packs a punch in there,”

“And hey if nothing else I’m not half bad at being bait,” Dean glanced over at Lucifer, “Who’s betting that this thing will not appreciate the first and last wearers of the Mark getting together to discuss locking it up again?” he asked and Lucifer blinked and then smirked, slow and dangerous.

“I knew there was a reason I liked you Dean. When you’re not being a moron of epic proportions of course,” he said smoothly. Then he turned his eyes to Chuck who had remained silent during the discussion and was instead watching them all with a neutral expression. “Anything to add or are you just going to sit there and listen?” He drawled.

A slow, impossibly warm smile spread across Chuck’s face.

“Isn’t it strange how you can know everything and yet still by tweaking just one thread you can be surprised at every turn?” he mused out loud before looking at each of them. “Do you believe you can do this?” he asked.

“We believe it’s worth a shot,” Dean spoke up without so much as glancing at the others at the table. “Way I see it everyone at this table, except maybe Hannah, has screwed up one way or another leading us to this moment. Some of us are guiltier than others but we all played a hand so we’ll all try to fix it.” He looked then at his little brother and grinned, “because that’s what good guys do,”

“Hey!” Lucifer and Crowley both protested.

“Watch who you’re calling good!” Crowley huffed even as at the same time Lucifer said, “No need to get personal,”

Everyone paused.

Then Gabriel ruined the moment by bursting into laughter.

A good portion of the occupants of the warehouse joined in, the offended expressions on demon and archangel providing more than enough mirth to tip them over the edge of hysteria.

To one side Chuck sat and watched, the smile still tugging at his lips despite the tiredness in his expression.

“Maybe we’re not as screwed as I thought,” he mused silently to himself.


	6. Oooh Shiny (Or Lucifer is more than just the pretty boy of the family)

“Oooh shiny,” Gabriel hovered over the pile of weapons that Castiel had produced once the group had relocated to the Men of Letters bunker. Chuck had wandered off somewhere but the archangels insisted that was normal and Metatron had heaved a heavy sigh and gone to find the wayward Creator of Everything. It seemed that even the most rebellious of angels fell into old patterns the moment God turned up. Or maybe that was a side effect of having Free Will stripped from them. Sam and Dean didn’t _feel_ like they’d lost their Free Will but they were also stood here collaborating with guys they’d much rather be trying to kill than help so perhaps there was something in it.

“These are not for you,” Castiel slapped Gabriel’s hand as the archangel reached for them. He hit a little harder than he possibly intended because Gabriel flinched in pain and retreated quickly. “Sorry,”

“No worries,” Gabriel replied cheerily, “I remember getting _my_ powers. Couldn’t flap my wings without taking out half a galaxy. Takes a while to get used to it, you’re doing fine,”

“’Fine’ is not going to cut it,” Michael glowered from the corner where he had buried himself in a book upon arrival and not moved since. “’Fine’ is a weak link we can’t afford. Not in this. ‘Fine’ will get us, and everything else, killed,”

“Now there’s an interesting question,” Lucifer cut in smoothly, “The mortal process of death has been going on so long that it can continue, for a time, without Death himself. But what happens when something nearly _im_ mortal dies after Death has been killed?” The thought was creepy and more than slightly terrifying.

“Father said we would deal with Death’s death after we dealt with the Darkness,” Castiel frowned in Lucifer’s direction as if suspecting him of frightening the angels that were meant to be helping them on purpose. He’d be right but Lucifer had posed a legitimate question as well.

“A nice sentiment,” Lucifer cut in smoothly. “However life and indeed, death is rarely that simple. This plan relies on the host confronting the Darkness head on so that you and Gabriel can sneak up behind it and you don’t think there will be causalities? Heaven will have to consider itself extremely fortunate to even have a host after this is done. Assuming of course that Creation doesn’t implode because there is no Death before then,”

“It may not be simple,” Castiel countered, “But it is also not going to matter if the Darkness manages to get an upper hand. Or have I underestimated the thing that is, apparently, beyond even the comprehension of archangels?”

“He has a point bro,” Gabriel pointed out.

“Ha Satan,” Lucifer murmured and most of the angels in the room flinched. “That’s my title. The oldest one I have. It’s my _job_ , was my job long before I was given that Mark. Long before humans, and Hell and the Cage. In fact if I remember correctly Father gave me this job for precisely this reason.”

“What’s he talking about?” Dean murmured to his brother.

“Ha Satan is more than just a name for the Devil Dean. It was a solemn duty, the one angel in creation who was not only given permission to question God but actively encouraged to do so. To test and to challenge,” Sam replied quietly.

“Because Dad can do literally anything,” Gabriel contributed, “But that doesn’t necessarily mean he _should_. Also it’s never a bad idea to get a second opinion on your tactics before you go to war.”

“Well that’s all well and good,” Dean added louder, “Way I see it someone does need to question the dude because some of his decisions in the last few years were extremely suspect. However I don’t see how this is relevant right now. So I killed Death, I suspect I’m going to regret that, but if _God_ can’t do jack shit about it then neither can we. So let’s deal with the problem we _can_ deal with and get back to that one later. “

“We might not be able to do anything about it but we should be prepared for what will happen,” Lucifer answered flatly, “The last thing we need is distractions while fighting the Darkness,”

“What are you proposing?” Michael hissed from his corner, his eyes narrowed in his brother’s direction, clearly knowing his brother well enough to see that he was planning something.

“We should find out what happens when something mostly immortal receives a fatal wound,” Lucifer returned smoothly, “Why are you volunteering?”

“Good luck defeating the Darkness without me,” Michael snorted and returned to his book clearly losing interest.

“You heard what Father said, everyone is replaceable,” Lucifer added smoothly.

“An exaggeration to keep us from fighting,” Michael dismissed, “He has neither the time nor the inclination to replace us. If he did we would still be in the Cage. Besides as Castiel has proven new Archangels is asking for trouble. Theoretically he could replace the three of us with new Archangels however they would never develop the discipline or control needed to seal the Darkness away,”

“We managed okay last time,” Gabriel defended Castiel who had gone very quiet at the suggestion.

“Last time there was little we could accidentally damage, baring the Leviathans and Eve’s eldest children. This time we are surrounded by a very fragile world that has already been badly damaged,” Everyone fell silent at Michael’s words as it sunk in just what they were trying to achieve.

“I volunteer,” An angel stepped forward catching the attention of everyone in the room.

“Adroniel?” Castiel looked over at him wide-eyed.

“Ha Satan is correct,” Adroniel met Castiel’s eyes steady and unwavering, “We cannot go into a battle uncertain of what Death’s loss has done to the natural order lest we get distracted. We cannot afford to _not_ test this and it cannot be any of the Archangels.” He smiled, faintly but sincerely, “I volunteer to be the test subject,”

“Adroniel _no_ ,” Castiel pleaded.

“You’re a brave one,” Lucifer cut in smoothly before anyone else could move. The Devil stepped forward and cradled Adroniel’s face in one hand, “You’re sacrifice will not be forgotten,”

The angel’s whole body convulsed as a blade sunk into his vessel’s heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel I should apologise because I'm pretty certain I accidentally stole that line about Ha Satan from 'Arrangements' which was not my intention. So, sorry icarus-chained and everyone else go read 'Arrangements'.


	7. Work begins while Lucifer makes friends... or doesn't

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This assumes that there is a difference between angel blades and archangel blades and you need the latter to kill an archangel.

“ _No!_ ” Castiel started forward, the room trembling under the weight of his new power but Gabriel was already holding him back.

By the time Adroniel slumped to the floor, his Grace flaring and stuttering and Lucifer’s blade still buried in his chest, half of the occupants of the room were on their feet. Some looking at Lucifer in outrage, others with worried concentration as they focused on the dying angel. Only Michael didn’t move, merely turned the page of his book and continued to ignore them.

“What the fuck was that for?!” Dean demanded, clearly not in the slightest bit afraid of Lucifer.

“A test,” Lucifer shrugged keeping his eyes on Adroniel, “he volunteered,” The Devil clearly didn’t give a flying fuck about harming his brother. His eyes flickered over to Dean, glowing with a familiar bloodlust. “Don’t tell me Dean that your conscience has reasserted itself so quickly? You can still feel it, feel the scars of it. Barely two hours gone, of course you can. That steady pulsing of blood and… ugh,” Lucifer grunted as an angel’s blade was buried into the back of his neck, coming out through his throat neatly severing his vessel’s vocal chords.

“Shut the fuck up,” Sam said from behind him, “I’ve listened to enough of your sick and delusional speeches, I’m not interested in hearing anymore. Especially not about the Mark,” Lucifer blinked, surprised, and then gurgled and glared. He reached up behind his head and dragged the blade from his neck with another grunt.

“ _Oww_ ,” He croaked out, shooting Sam a hurt look as if the human had betrayed him.

“Consider it the start of reparations,” Sam informed the Devil flatly. “I’ve got a century’s worth of pain to repay on you and I’m in no rush to get it over with,”

“Ouch,” Gabriel cut in, his eyes wide and disturbed even as he kept Castiel from getting involved, “When did the Samsquatch get so bloodthirsty?” he joked, clearly trying to lighten the mood. The joke fell flat however as they were all interrupted by a low groan of pain from the floor.

Adroniel, it seemed, was not dead.

Neither however did he appear to be in very good shape.

With a heavy sigh of one who really did not want to get involved Michael set aside his book and stood. The angels in the room parted before him like a sea, even the ones that had to step closer to Lucifer in order to get out of his way didn’t hesitate. It seemed that Michael’s reputation had only grown more terrifying since he was locked up with Lucifer. The eldest Archangel knelt by Adroniel and stretched out a hand.

Sam, Dean and Crowley all had to look away at the intense light that flooded the room from Michael’s Grace and even then they were left with spots in their eyes.

“He’s alive,” Michael reported as the light faded away. “But he appears not to be healing, even with aid. He may recover; he may not however he is tethered to life by a very thin thread. Someone should put him somewhere safe,” The Archangel stood, Lucifer’s blade in his hand. He turned back towards his corner but paused before moving away and glanced back to Lucifer. After a beat he flicked the blade around so he offered the hilt to Lucifer. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re trying to do. No one is impressed and reminding everyone that it was the Mark that started your corruption is not going to earn you any sympathy. You passed the Mark to Cain prior to the War so your actions during the War cannot be blamed on it.” With that he turned away and returned to his book leaving everyone in his wake speechless.

Lucifer just glared after his elder brother and then childishly stuck a forked tongue out in his direction.

“We should move Adroniel somewhere comfortable,” Hannah intruded then before anymore arguments could be started, “Sam would you be willing to direct us somewhere safe?” She asked and Sam blinked.

“Uh yeah, sure. We have plenty of guest rooms,” The hunter said as two more angels moved to lift Adroniel from the floor. They and Hannah followed Sam from the room even as Castiel finally broke free of Gabriel’s hold.

“It would seem that without Death angels will not fully die,” Castiel said quietly into the silent room, “However we are left extremely vulnerable,”

“Which means we have to be extra careful,” Gabriel agreed, “It’s one thing to die in battle but to be left stranded like Adroniel?” He shuddered, and more than a few angels shared terrified expressions. “I’ll knock up some protection spells, the strongest I can make, while we wait for Father to get back,”

“Sam will no doubt help,” Dean grunted, “Meantime me and Cas can go through this pile and see what might be useful to the angels,”

“And what are we supposed to do?” Lucifer gestured at himself and Michael.

“You two are coming with me,” Crowley spoke up, “No point in laying a trap if you aren’t where the Darkness is expecting you to be. When… ahem… God lets that thing go you need to already be in position else this won’t work,”

“You’re taking them to Hell?” Dean asked and Crowley shrugged.

“Apparently,” He replied, “If I’m lucky Mummy-dearest will be attempting to stage a coupe,” he smirked, dark and slightly thrilled, “Won’t that be fun?”

“Mummy-dearest?” Lucifer arched an eyebrow.

“I’ll introduce you,” Crowley promised, “I’d pay good money to see her screaming in unspeakable agony at your hands,”

“Is this an attempt to make me forget your betrayal?” Lucifer raised an eyebrow.

“Is it working?” Crowley asked.

“No,” Lucifer smirked.

“Then no because I’m not a moron.” Crowley replied with a matching smirk, “Coming?” He enquired.

“Why not,” Lucifer replied, clearly amused, “Michael?”

“If I must,” Michael set down his book and stood. An instant later the two archangels and the King of Hell were gone.

“I can’t decide if that’s a terrifying combination or a hilarious one,” Gabriel mused to the slightly emptier room. Everyone stared at him and he shrugged lightly, “What?” He asked innocently.

“Yeah I’m not even going to go there,” Dean commented grabbing the nearest book on protection spells and throwing it at the Archangel. “Get to work already,” Gabriel caught the book and smirked.


	8. Invasion of Hell The Sequel: Chuck is not reassuring

“Lucifer and Michael are in position,” Chuck announced as he and Metatron appeared out of nowhere, “And by in position I mean they are stood just outside of the Cage bickering as they always do. We should get a move on before they decide to kill each other anyway,”

“What happened to ‘I’ve revoked Free Will’?” Dean asked snidely.

“I have, which is why I don’t want them to decide they want to kill each other because when they can’t they’ll get even more wound up.” Chuck answered mildly, “Castiel don’t worry about Adroniel, I’ll sort that out when we’ve finished with the Darkness,”

“Father,” Castiel bowed his head in acknowledgement not hiding the relief he felt over it.

“Uh so we may have come up with something that will help,” Gabriel cut in, “But we need to check with you and Metatron to see if it’ll actually work,”

“Show me,” Chuck said stepping forward towards the archangel. Gabriel stood before a table which was covered with charms on small necklaces as well as delicate gauntlets engraved with enochian.

“We uh, wanted to make protection spells for the angels,” Gabriel gestured to the charms first, “Working on the principle that the Mark was a seal created by four archangels so we came up with something that infuses the charms with the grace of the four of us as a… ward, sort of? And well, we were complaining about not having Leviathan but we _do_ have a copy of the Leviathan tablet. So we came up with the idea for these gauntlets, they’re supposed to mimic a Leviathan bite, so between that and their blades they might have a better chance at holding the Darkness off?”

“I see,” Chuck said and motioned Metatron forward, “What do you see Metatron?” He asked and the scribe peered at the gauntlets and charms.

“Uh… well… the principal is sound but there’s probably a more effective way of doing it?” He asked looking up at Chuck who nodded.

“Can you make corrections in an hour?” Chuck asked and Metatron nodded, “Good, get to work. Sam will stay with you to help. Everyone else, we need to get in position.” Metatron grimaced but moved to start fixing them. Sam and Dean shared a look that said everything anyone need to know about their feelings on being split up. However they didn’t complain, there was no point as their feet would take them where Chuck commanded whether they wanted to or not.

“Be careful Dean,” Sam said and Dean nodded.

“You too Sammy,” The elder Winchester moved over to Castiel, making it clear that he would only be flying with one angel. He blinked and then Chuck, the host, two archangels and Dean were in Hell.

“Is everyone here?” Crowley enquired as soon as they materialised, he was sat on his throne glaring at the demons who were quite clearly trying to decide whether it was worth sticking around or to run, now, while they had the chance.

“Metatron and Sam will be here soon.” Chuck answered, “Is Hell prepared?”

“One intensely confusing labyrinth with spots so heavily dripping in black magic that you could let of an atomic bomb’s worth of grace and no one would notice,” Crowley smirked, “Which, granted, is essentially what an archangel is so we should be good,”

“Castiel, Gabriel? Crowley will show you where you need to be,” Chuck said and the two archangels nodded.

“Apparently I will,” Crowley grunted moving away from his throne to lead the archangels away, “Boys, come with me,” He called and the few demons left in the room followed on throwing nervous looks back at the angels in the throne room. No one asked what Crowley planned on doing with the demons while the onslaught was going on. Either way it left Dean alone with Chuck and the host.

“We’ll make our stand here,” Chuck said, “It is on the direct path between Earth and the Cage. It is also a large enough room and has many entrances to allow the archangels to approach undetected. Dean, if necessary, you and Lucifer will head in that direction,” He pointed to one of the doorways, “Follow the path as far and as deep as possible, when you hit the apparently bottomless hole you need to go _down_. Lucifer won’t let the fall kill you,”

“Jump down the bottomless hole, great, very reassuring,” Dean grimaced but moved over to the door in question. As he did so the host spread out around the room, organising themselves silently into ranks. Chuck himself took a seat in Crowley’s chair and closed his eyes.

“I’m going to release the Darkness now,” He said into the quiet of Hell, his voice echoed around the room oddly and somehow Dean just knew that it was also echoing around Hell so that the other parts of their small army could hear, “It will take approximately an hour to get here assuming that it comes directly for us. Lucifer, Michael; make it look good,”

“No problem,” Lucifer’s voice echoed in return, with a blood thirst that sent shivers up Dean’s spine with the similarity of it to his own voice the last few months. In an effort to distract himself he watched Chuck, as did every angel in the throne room.

His brow furrowed, sweat coated his brow and his hands clenched on the arms of the throne.

It belatedly occurred to Dean that this could all go very, very wrong.

Chuck grunted and something in the air _shifted_.

Chuck’s eyes opened, gleaming bright, brilliant silver in the gloom.

“Now we wait,” He said.


	9. An angry, familiar light appears (oh and The Darkness finally makes an appearance)

Chuck was doing _something_.

No one was quite sure what, except that the air around him was vibrating so fast that even Dean could almost see it, he could definitely hear it. A quiet but persistent whine that undercut the crashes and booms that one could only presume were the effects of the battle two archangels were engaged in. Supposedly it was a mock fight, just enough to attract the attention of anything and everything nearby. Nearly everyone in the throne room, whether they were aware of Heaven's part in the Apocalypse plan or not, understood that if _this_ was a mock fight then Lucifer and Michael going at it for real would have been disastrous for everything.

There was no sign of the Darkness. Metatron and Sam had joined them, handing out charms and gauntlets to the host before taking their own places. Sam was to stay near Chuck, why this was important no one but Chuck knew, while Metatron had disappeared to make sure Castiel was up to date on his part of the ritual to seal the Darkness away. Not that he had much to do, apparently, except stand there and not mess anything up but standing there and not messing anything up was apparently very crucial.

There were wisps of light now, floating around Chuck. Light that looked vaguely familiar in the way it crackled with energy and lashed out sharply. If light could have emotions then this one would be irritated and itching for a fight. Most of the occupants of the room were enraptured with watching the light start to coalesce and become increasingly familiar as it did so.

“It’s here,” Chuck announced seemingly out of nowhere. He lashed out with one hand and swept the fragments of light into his hand where they vanished from sight.

That was when everyone, no longer distracted by the light, realised that the room had gotten an awful lot darker all of a sudden. The candles that had lit up the room previously still flickered but they didn’t cast any light, it was as if their light was contained within the flame itself. Tiny little flickers of life amid an ocean of Darkness. Eyes, in this, were useless and it became clear why neither human had been offered a gauntlet of their own, though they both wore charms. They were blind and trying to attack at the world around them while blind would only end up with accidents.

**I am here.**

The voice didn’t echo, no the room was too full of blackness to allow for a sound to echo. Assuming that it was sound and not just the impression of sound.

Then the Darkness coalesced even further until a figure stood before them. It was impossible to describe this figure, except that it was roughly human shaped and of a similar height to Chuck, simply because it was far too dark to see any features. Shadows clung to it and leeched into its surroundings. The humans were still effectively blind and Dean realised why he had been put next to the door he needed to run through and why Chuck had given him directions to run in.

**Such a pretty world you have made. So bright.**

Chuck didn’t move just stayed where he was sat and watched the figure slowly approach, the shadows moving with it and writhing as if each one was its own living thing.

**So much light. All ready to be smothered.**

The little light there was suddenly vanished. Every candle went out and had anyone thought to bring a torch that too would have switched off. Except there was still one small light, a tiny glow that held the Darkness back. That glow was Chuck.

“You can try,” Chuck said flatly and suddenly the crackling furious light from before was back and it came back _fighting._

That seemed to be the signal for the host as the room was suddenly flooded with the light of hundreds of angels’ graces. They launched at the figure, attacking with blade and gauntlet and the Darkness screeched in fury. The first wave of angels were beaten back with a suffocating blackness, the lights of their grace almost instantly squashed but the second wave managed to bring their weapons to bear. Then the fight was truly on.

The crashing sounds of combat and screams of pain were now deafening. So deafening that no one noticed when the crashes and booms of the two archangels stopped.

In the centre of the chaos Sam watched Chuck as he withdrew the fighting light with some difficulty and a gentle scolding for resisting. Apparently wisps of light that may-or-may-not be someone long dead should not try to take the Darkness on single-handed, because they would be squashed out like the candles.

“Sam, hold onto him for me,” Chuck said passing the light to the suddenly startled human, “I need my hands free,” Sam took the light in his hands and watched as it sulkily wound itself around his fingers. “Keep him safe Sam, he may be needed,”

“Right,” Sam swallowed and hugged the little light to his chest and tried to pretend he didn’t know which long-dead-someone this was and how much he didn’t want that long-dead-someone back let alone cuddled up to his chest for protection.

“Now,” Chuck said and stood. He lifted up his hands, “ _Let there be light,_ ” He commanded. His voice a quiet roar that pierced through the sound of the fight with ease.

The room flooded with a light so bright that when the humans automatically closed their eyes and still could see it searing on the inside of their eyelids. The Darkness screeched in pain and anger. Then, with a sonic boom, four immense presences appeared surrounding the single dark figure. The host dropped off, dragging their casualties away, and the four archangels moved in, each one at the point of a star with Chuck taking the fifth point.

**No.**

The Darkness had noticed the trap, and it was not pleased.

“Oh yes!” Gabriel hissed with delight in reply as his entire body lit up with light that was all gold and red and fire. Around him the other archangels did the same. Castiel was bathed in lights of deep steel grey, cut through by the yellow of lightning, Michael in browns and bronze of good earth with greens of life while Lucifer lit up in white and icy blue. Chuck on the other hand was every colour, every wavelength on the spectrum from the deepest ultra violet to the most brilliant infrared.

The Darkness screeched. The archangels flinched at the onslaught of shadows that accompanied it but they did not waver. Chuck smiled.

Then his eyes widened.

“ _No,_ ”


	10. Should have seen this one coming (Demons are Evil remix)

Demons, it had been observed, in their most basic form looked remarkably alike the broiling black cloud that made up the Darkness. Demons were humans that had everything good in them torn out, shredded and stuffed back in all jumbled up and wrong. Demons were humans whose souls had lost their light and turned into something black and Dark.

The first demon had been created by the first holder of the Mark which contained the Darkness.

Lucifer only made one demon before he passed the Mark to Cain. Lilith and Cain had made many, many more.

Demons poured into the throne room. Black eyes and red eyes, daevas and acheri and hell hounds. Every bad and evil thing in Hell and it converged on the throne room. The only demon that didn’t was Crowley, though why this was none would guess.

The host regrouped and attacked en mass. Sam reached for the demon killing knife with one hand, the other holding the light against his chest. Dean, isolated and alone, swore and ducked behind a pillar out of direct line of sight wishing desperately for some kind of weapon.

The archangels, distracted by the sudden arrival, faltered.

The Darkness took ruthless advantage, lunging straight for the weakest point. Castiel’s eyes widened as he put a hand up to protect himself but it was already too late. The Darkness threw him against the wall, shattering the star and extinguishing the newest archangel’s light as though it had never been there. Michael and Gabriel immediately converged, standing over the unconscious figure of their brother, their own lights now forming an impenetrable barrier.

Lucifer on the other hand was already moving.

“Hey asshole!” He yelled and threw a blast of the purest light towards the Darkness. It hit the figure with all the force of a sledgehammer and definitely attracted its attention. “Remember me?” He smiled bloodthirsty, “More importantly remember this guy?” He reached the door now and dragged Dean out into the line of sight of the Darkness. The figure froze, clearly torn between the fallen archangel and the threat of those who had worn the Mark that kept it locked up for so long.

“Yeah asshole,” Dean stood by Lucifer’s side, smirking as well and hiding the pounding of his heart as he stared down the ancient evil. “Catch us if you can!” He said and then he turned and started running. Lucifer stayed just a fraction longer, just to be sure the Darkness was following and then he too ran.

“How fast can you run?” Lucifer asked as they pounded down a corridor.

“Hopefully fast enough,” Dean said keeping his eyes ahead and not daring to look back. The flickering of lights around them told them all they needed to know about how close the Darkness was. Still he couldn’t quite resist everything, “Cas?”

“He’ll be fine,” Lucifer grunted, “Once the demons are smote Father will fix any damage and we’ll go for a second attempt. We just need to stay ahead for now,”

“Chuck mentioned a seemingly bottomless pit,” Dean said and Lucifer smiled.

“On the odd occasion he does have good ideas,” Lucifer said and then suddenly changed direction. They left the tunnels of Crowley’s labyrinth and broke out into the main part of Hell. Chains and racks, tables covered in torture implements and benches for demons to observe from littered their way like a cross between a horrific marketplace and an abattoir. Dean and Lucifer shared a look.

“The world’s most deadly game of parkour,” Dean grunted and then set off at an even faster pace. He let Lucifer lead for the most part, the archangel knew where he was going and had some kind of instinct to know which obstacles the human could get over and which he needed to get around.

They went over tables, along benches and ducking the occasional giant band saw. They used chains to swing over the racks that were still occupied with damned human souls. Their road came to a dead end but they didn’t halt, Lucifer simply boosted Dean directly upwards before jumping himself and they were on the roof of what was definitely Hell’s version of a slaughterhouse.

Behind them the screams of tortured human souls were extinguished as something far worse than Hell swamped over them.

In Hell even the roofs of buildings were a torture device in themselves. The ever present chains and hooks tried to grab for them. Barbed wire, huge rusty metal spikes and gargoyles made navigating them difficult. Rotten support beams, missing tiles and the occasional twisted, blackened tree breaking through threatened to drag them down back into the buildings and towards the promise of more pain. They used the chains to swing from the slaughterhouse to a building seemingly designed to give souls the hot tar treatment. The roof under their feet turned blisteringly hot from the furnaces, threatening to melt Dean’s shoes and leaving Lucifer, ice as he was, wincing in pain.

Still the Darkness followed.

“Faster Dean,” Lucifer warned and Dean grimaced. He was tiring, he was only human and they had already run miles across Hell, but he dug deep and put on another burst of speed just as they reached the Hell Hound kennels. These, unlike the rest of Hell, were not completely abandoned.

Archangel and hunter jumped down from the roofs onto the metal bars of the cages. Hounds snapped at their heels, threw themselves at the bars and threatened to send both of them flying off balance. Dean grimaced but danced across, leaping from point to point. Lucifer threw a hand behind him as he ran, straight across as if he weighed nothing, and the cages they had passed leapt up to form a barrier between them and the thing following them. Not that cages would stop the Darkness, but it might slow it… for half a second.

“Where’s this pit?” Dean gasped as they hit the floor once more and tore down another street.

“Not far,” Lucifer said, “We’re close to the bottom of Hell now,” Dean risked a glance back and saw Lucifer was right. The whole time they were running they had been running downslope, deeper and deeper into the enormous basin that was Hell, and now they were approaching the very deepest part.

“What’s down there?” Dean asked as he saw the Darkness break through the last of the cages and he turned back, pushing his body even further.

“Ever read the Chronicles of Narnia? The last one? The Last Battle.” Lucifer asked and Dean shook his head, not enough breath left to reply. “Ah well. Let’s just say we’re going further down and further in,” With that Dean looked back and realised that the ground just a few feet ahead of him just vanished. There was nothing beyond it. Nothing except a low roar and a glow that was unique to molten rock.

“Don’t slow down,” Lucifer warned, “Just jump.”

_Sure thing_. Dean thought and he didn’t slow. The ground vanished and Dean jumped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay confession time. This whole story was started for two scenes - Chuck saving the boys from the Darkness and Dean and Lucifer having a parkour race in Hell against the Darkness. I refuse to apologise for this.
> 
> Confession time over.


	11. What happens to demons when they die? Well they go... right... there... oops?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are officially half way through this story! Yay!
> 
> A big thanks to all of you who have stuck with this so far, I hope you're all enjoying it and I hope you like the second half as much as the first!

“Cas!” The moment the last demon fell Sam was hurrying to his friend’s side. Gabriel and Michael were still stood over his fallen form but they had been fighting as well, once the Darkness was gone after Lucifer and Dean there had been little point in not. The sooner they finished the sooner they could get help to Lucifer and Dean.

“Let me see,” Chuck demanded reaching Castiel at the same time as Sam. He reached out a hand over Castiel’s unconscious form and sighed in relief. “Not dead, just wounded. Easily fixable,” He pressed forward to touch Castiel’s forehead with two fingers and the archangel’s eyes snapped open.

“What happened?” He asked groggily, blinking in surprise.

“The Darkness took over the demons,” Michael answered, “They are apparently part of it, or it is a part of them. They assaulted us and the Darkness used the distraction to break the ritual,”

“Where is it?” Castiel asked.

“Chasing Lucifer and Dean,” Chuck answered, “They’ve reached the deepest part of the Pit,”

“What’s down there?” Sam asked and Chuck smiled faintly.

“Have you ever read the Chronicles of Narnia Sam?” He asked, “The Last Battle specifically?” He asked and Sam shook his head.

“I’ve only read the first one,” He admitted.

“A simpler question then. What happens to demons when they die?” Chuck asked and Sam blinked.

“I… uh… don’t know. I assumed they just… died,” He said and Chuck shook his head.

“Very little in creation completely ends,” He said and reached out a hand to Sam, “See,” He said and Sam watched as the light tangled around his fingers detached itself and flew back to Chuck. “There are worlds within worlds Sam, and there is a Hell within Hell. You go further in, deeper down and you find deeper, darker places. Just as if you go further in and further up in Heaven you will find lighter and brighter. The whole creation is layer upon layer all interconnected and intertwined.”

“So why are they going down there?” Sam asked.

“To find the one person who kept the Mark truly safe for millennia upon millennia and never faltered,” Chuck said and Sam blinked.

“Cain,” he said, “That’s where Cain is,”

“I can contain the Darkness again Sam but someone has to take the Mark. It can’t be Dean, you’ve made that clear enough and it can’t be Lucifer that was a mistake on my part. Cain is dead, will remain dead, and can hold onto it permanently.” Chuck said and Sam swallowed.

“Did you know that was going to happen?” He asked and Chuck shook his head.

“The world isn’t as simple as will it happen or not. There was a chance, but there was a chance we would be successful, or we’d all die and it would be irrelevant. At their inception all possible outcomes have equal probability. I just stack the odds in my favour,” He smirked then and Sam blinked. “In a world of complete Free Will Sam, every possible choice is equally probable. In a world with no Free Will only the outcomes I choose have any kind of probability. That’s not quite one path because otherwise the universe would implode on itself but it’s near enough. The world as you know it lies somewhere between, although I’ve been nudging and nudging it towards Free Will for a lot longer than you’ve been alive,”

“So now what?” Gabriel asked Chuck.

“We get your younger siblings out of here and back to Heaven, they’ve done their part,” Chuck said looking over the host. Most were in a similar state to Adroniel with barely a handful surviving both the attack on the Darkness and then the ambush by the demons to pick up afterwards. All of those that survived were injured in some way but they seemed to fall into the categories of ‘walking’ and ‘unconscious’. “Then someone should probably find Crowley,”

“Was he not with the other demons?” Castiel asked, blinking heavily, and Chuck shook his head.

“No. Crowley is different. Alone amongst demons he had a soul. The trials gave him one, though it was not completed and he remained a demon. The soul would have protected him from the Darkness’ control,” Chuck answered.

“Me and Mikey will look,” Gabriel volunteered elbowing his brother who glared but didn’t refute that. Chuck nodded and they departed.

“We will handle the host Father,” Hannah said approaching, she was being held up by a battered looking Metatron but both were on their feet.

“Thank you Hannah,” Chuck said and then the angels started to depart leaving Sam and Castiel with Chuck.

“So are we stuck waiting again?” Sam asked, “If Dean and Lucifer have to find Cain?”

“Yes, but we won’t be waiting here. Rather we will wait at the top of the hole for when the Darkness comes back up after them. We should have time enough to have the ritual prepared the moment they return.” Chuck answered offering a hand to help Castiel up. Castiel took it, still looking somewhat hazy but steady enough once he was on his feet. He looked around the ruins of the throne room with a frown.

“Has every demon in Hell been destroyed aside from Crowley?” He asked and Chuck sighed.

“Pretty much,” He said, “There were a few dozen on Earth that will have survived,” He paused and shook his head a saddened expression crossing his face, “Hell will recover eventually. There are always humans who find their way here,”

There was a long moment of silence as the last of the angels disappeared before Castiel spoke again.

“Father?” He said and Chuck looked at him patiently.

“Yes Castiel?” He prompted when the question written on Castiel’s face wasn’t immediately asked.

“If these demons consist of all the demons in Hell,” Castiel said slowly, carefully, “And all were controlled by the Darkness because they have no souls left, no light with which to fight off its influence… And now they are all dead…” He paused and looked up with worry on his face. “Are they not now down deeper in Hell, in the parts where dead demons go…? Where Dean and Lucifer are…?”

“Where the Darkness is,” Sam finished when Castiel couldn’t bring himself to. The two of them, hunter and angel, stared at Chuck who looked back at the hundreds of dead demons.

“Ah,” The sound seemed to escape him, “Yes. This might be a problem,”


	12. This could be the begining of a beautiful bromance (but probably isn't)

Dean fell for what felt like an age.

He hadn’t had time to worry about the falling part, not with the Darkness catching up and the ground disappearing fast. He just jumped and prayed for the best. Then he was falling.

And falling.

And falling.

An eternity passed him by as the world was swallowed up by the endless descent.

The hole itself was like nothing Dean had ever seen before. Its sides were perfectly smooth and glass-like but they glowed with a steady golden light. As if the hole was less of a hole and more of a tunnel of thin black obsidian cutting through the very heart of the Earth and beyond it was the molten core, kept back by magic and not much else.

Bizarrely as he fell and gazed at this wonder of fire the air got colder and colder. Until he was shivering even as he fell.

He’d lost track of Lucifer and the Darkness.

Though the sound of crashes up above him made him suspect there was a reason for that. He didn’t look up; he didn’t want to risk accidentally burning his eyes out as he gazed on the fury of the Morningstar unleashed. Instead he looked down, down into what seemed like an endless gaping maw. He wondered if it was endless.

As he fell he saw something curious. Every now and again something hurtled past him, far faster than he was falling despite the fact that it appeared to be smoke like and should, according to physics, drift down much slower than him. It was like the laws of gravity had decided to turn themselves on their heads. The smokier and less substantial the things were the faster they fell. Dean suspected he knew what they were but couldn’t understand why they too were falling down this shaft. Surely it wasn’t that hard to avoid if you weren’t running for your lives from an unthinkable ancient evil thing?

A flash of light blinded him for a second and his senses were swamped.

Then something huge, strong and moving ridiculously fast hit him in the back. Something that felt a little like arms fastened around his waist and somehow, bizarrely, Dean’s fall sped up.

“Don’t struggle,” Lucifer’s voice sounded over the roar of the wind as they hurtled towards the floor, “I have six hundred wings, don’t worry. I’m in control,”

If Dean had the air to breathe, let alone talk, he might have informed the Devil that wasn’t all that helpful – or just scream whichever really – but he didn’t and so he simply closed his eyes to the dizzying speed and braced himself for impact.

An impact that didn’t come.

With one long swoop that nearly had Dean hurling up his small intestines they stopped falling and were now rocketing along horizontally. Dean opened his eyes to see that they were in Hell, again, another deep bowl just like the one they had jumped from and for a blistering second he thought that the bizarre gravity had meant he had been falling _upwards_ all this time and not realised it. Then he realised that this Hell looked very different to the last one and that there was something else happening here.

“You’ve heard of the seven circles of Hell,” Lucifer said into his ear as they rocketed over a bare, frost-covered landscape covered with ruins and everywhere demons writhed and fought in chaos. “The details were terrible, barely even scratched the surface but the analogy wasn’t wrong. This is the second circle. This is where most demons come when they die,”

“Hell for demons, lovely,” Dean gasped looking down on the carnage, “Why did Chuck send us here?”

“It’s not here we’re going,” Lucifer answered, “We need to go deeper down and further in. Look,” He shifted one arm to point and Dean saw another endless drop, almost identical to the one they had just come down. “What we’re looking for is in the third circle,”

“If I remember correctly your Cage was in the seventh,” Dean gritted his teeth at the prospect of another fall.

“Where do you think the drop comes from?” Lucifer asked with black amusement. “The shaft existed long before my Fall but it was smaller, less direct. I carved through magma and rock, freezing the magma as I fell, creating a perfect shaft down to the deepest parts. The metaphysics is a lot more complicated than that however, the Cage also exists in every circle, and there are a lot more than seven. Don’t try to work it out; your human brain will never manage,”

“So why are we flying now when we weren’t before?” Dean asked.

“Because before we were a distraction, now we just need to get to where we’re going as fast as possible,” Lucifer answered. “In the air we have the advantage of speed, look behind us,” He said and then flipped onto his back so they were flying backwards and Dean could see the second circle spread out far beyond them. More importantly he could see the Darkness’ approach. Shadow and blackness swallowing the world and the glow from the first drop had been completely swallowed. It was moving fast but not as fast as Lucifer.

“I have a question,” Dean said as they flipped over again and Lucifer put on another burst of speed, “When we get where we’re going are we going to have to go back up again? Because I can see a problem with that,”

“So can I,” Lucifer said, “We’ll just have to deal with it. Hold on,” He said and Dean blinked as they reached the new hole and Lucifer pulled a complicated spin and then dove. They hurtled down, faster than ever before. Dean’s teeth chattered as it got even colder. The glow from the magma was dimmer this time, the obsidian just a little thicker.

This time the fall was much shorter. But then they were travelling much faster.

They rocketed down into the third circle and didn’t stop. Dean saw the ground coming up at them far too fast and closed his eyes. Man he _hated_ flying. At the very last minute Lucifer twisted once more and somehow managed to tuck Dean into his chest.

They hit the ground hard. Dean very nearly swallowed his tongue with the sudden, harsh jolt. Lucifer’s legs however took most of the impact and when Dean opened his eyes he found they were stood, perfectly unharmed in a small crater built from ice.

“Holy shit,” He gasped partly from shock, partly from the cold and mostly because he felt like he was going to throw up any second. “I am _never_ flying again in my life. _Never_.”

“I’d love to see you get back up without wings,” Lucifer said snidely, “We don’t have much time. Come on,”


	13. In which the Author steals some bad guys we all thought we were done with

As Lucifer walked away, up and out of the crater they had formed, Dean watched as enormous ethereal wings, hundreds upon hundreds of them, folded inwards and inwards again until they tucked up into empty space.

“Why aren’t my eyes burning out from the wings?” He asked as he followed the archangel. His shoes slipped and slid on the ice that coated everything but he continued on doggedly.

“The deeper you go into either Heaven or Hell the less the standard rules of physics apply,” Lucifer explained, “The metaphysical dominates and even human eyes can start to see things that they couldn’t ordinarily. I’m not, actually, in a vessel anymore. I ditched it as we left the first circle so I could fly faster; vessels weigh angels down too much. However your human mind is inserting an image you can comprehend.” Lucifer glanced back at him, “It protects your mind and your eyes,”

“Wonderful,” Dean grunted even as he slipped, again, on the ice. He gave up on walking normally and clambered up out of the crater. It would be easier on the level to walk without falling on his face, at least he hoped so. “So what are we here for?”

“A key part of the ritual to put the Darkness away again,” Lucifer answered pausing and waiting for the human to catch up again.

“A key part… you mean even if the demons _hadn’t_ attacked that _still_ wouldn’t have worked?” Dean demanded and Lucifer smirked.

“It would have worked; it would just be less than ideal. Father, you will quickly learn, rarely has one plan in mind. Not when a dozen will do.” He said.

“Right, well, that wasn’t at all cryptic.” Dean grumbled as he kept his eyes on his feet, “Now I know what we’re doing here I’ll just…”

“Well, well, well. What have we here?” A familiar, hated voice purred and Dean’s head shot up. Abaddon sat just four feet away on a large boulder. Her usually immaculate appearance was wrecked, her scarlet hair was torn and tangled and filthy, there was blood on her hands, and her manicured nails were cracked and broken and caked in blood. Her eyes were blood red.

“Abaddon,” Lucifer nodded at the demon.

“My Lord,” Abaddon bowed and then focused her eyes on Dean. She licked her lips, “Did you bring us a present?”

“Not today,” Lucifer replied.

“Pity,” Abaddon said and then smiled, bloody and dark, “ _It_ would let us play,”

“It?” Lucifer said going dangerously still.

“ _It promised us blood_ ,” Abaddon said standing slowly and Dean took half a step back. He was still weaponless and Abaddon was dangerous. Even with an archangel between her and him he wasn’t taking any chances.

“The Darkness,” Lucifer whispered, “Damn,”

“It’s controlling her,” Dean finished that thought. He watched as a blade fell into Lucifer’s hand and the archangel moved to more fully cover the human.

“Dean… run,” He ordered.

“I don’t know what we’re looking for,” Dean said already moving backwards.

“You’ll know when you see it. Run!” Lucifer shouted as Abaddon lunged. Dean didn’t wait; he just turned and ran as fast as he could on the ice. He was sliding more than running but he didn’t care about his dignity, only at getting away from Abaddon.

“Dean! _Dean-o_!” Dean knew that voice too and wasn’t stupid enough to stop. Yellow-Eyes, of course it was Yellow-Eyes. Apparently this was the circle of Hell in which all the Big Bad demons that he and Sam had ever put down went, do not pass go and do not give up that drive to tear all Winchesters to shreds.

It occurred to Dean that maybe it was a demon they were looking for. Someone like Lilith, who was a Seal herself. Great, he thought, just great. He was alone in Hell with every evil sucker he had ever ganked, weaponless and looking for one of them but with no idea which one. And of course an ancient, impossible evil on his tail.

“Oh yeah, this was a flawless plan. Well done Chuck,” Dean grunted to himself as he ran. Yellow-Eyes didn’t appear to be following right now but Dean didn’t dare stop to find out. “What happened to questioning God’s plans huh? This was _not_ a good plan,”

“Dean?” The next voice that called out to him was also familiar but rather than bloodthirsty it was confused. Dean, before he even realised it, came screeching to a halt on some unnamed instinct. He turned to face Cain who was staring at Dean in confusion.

“Dean, what are you doing here?” Cain frowned. He looked about as good as Abaddon had done, in complete disarray and coated in blood. Apparently demons down here didn’t exactly get along very well.

“Cain,” Dean swallowed and then something occurred to him, “You’ve got no deep desperate desire to start murdering me in the name of some impossible evil thing?”

“No more than usual,” Cain shrugged, his eyes narrowing, “Dean where’s the Mark?” He asked.

That was when it hit Dean like a thunderbolt. Why they were here, what they needed. _Someone to take the Mark_. Lucifer and Dean had both proven untrustworthy with it but Cain… Cain had held it for nearly eight thousand years before giving it away and he was dead.

“Okay, Sam and me, we screwed up. Do you know what the Mark was?” Dean asked hurriedly and Cain blinked.

“A seal of some sort. Lucifer never really explained. Wait… you got _rid_ of it?” He asked and Dean grimaced.

“Yeah, we destroyed the Mark. Broke the seal. Long story short the biggest, baddest thing that has ever existed has chased Lucifer and me down here and taken control of all the demons and… wait. You’re a demon… why isn’t the Darkness controlling you?” He asked and Cain shrugged.

“Well I’m a demon, yes, but I have a soul still. The Mark was what made me a demon. I never died, never went to Hell and never had my soul torn to shreds. Lucifer said that was important, that I kept my soul even as a demon,” Cain answered and Dean blinked.

“Light. Souls are light. They keep the Darkness from taking control. If you had the Mark and no soul it would be able to take you over even if it was contained… but wait. You’re dead _now_ , do you still have your soul?” he asked and Cain shrugged.

“I must have, if this Darkness isn’t controlling me. Did you say Lucifer was down here too?” Cain asked and Dean nodded.

“He got side tracked by Abaddon. She is being controlled by the Darkness and probably everything else down here too. Come on, we should get back to help him. Or at least get out of here. He’s our only ride out,” Dean said.

“What about whatever you came down here for?” Cain asked.

“I’m pretty sure you’re it,” Dean grunted turning and setting off again, “Come on!” He ordered and set back towards where flashes of light told him Lucifer was fighting.


	14. Demon Trials: Please find attached one soul, slightly battered (sorry no refunds)

“We have to _what_?” Gabriel whined.

“You have to go down, at least to the second circle, and clear a path for Lucifer, Dean and Cain to return through,” Chuck said simply from where he was knelt by the unconscious form of Crowley.

“But what about having the ritual all set up so we can nail this thing?” Gabriel asked and Chuck raised an eyebrow.

“Needless to say, if Lucifer doesn’t get back, we won’t be able to contain the Darkness,” He replied.

“But you’ve got your miniature lightning bolt,” Gabriel pointed at the light wrapped around Chuck’s wrist. As if knowing it was being talked about the light thrashed slightly and then zapped out in warning at Gabriel’s fingers. The trickster archangel yelped and withdrew his hand sharply, sucking on the singed finger.

“Leave him alone,” Chuck said reaching out to soothe the light, “He’s in no shape to be fighting right now. I need Lucifer which means you and Michael need to get down there and clear a path.”

“Castiel isn’t going as well?” Michael enquired tightly.

“Castiel, as you pointed out so well earlier, is inexperienced with his new power. Hell has taken enough damage without adding in accidental damage from a new archangel as well. Besides he’s still hurt and needs some time to rest before we start the ritual again,” Chuck answered easily.

“Very well,” Michael nodded but he didn’t seem impressed by it. “Come Gabriel,” He said moved to the edge of the huge drop. Sam watched him go and grimaced slightly. He couldn’t imagine Dean jumping off that, not given his distinct hatred of anything resembling flying. Yet Chuck said they had and the empty vessel of Lucifer’s that had been left in a crumpled heap on the edge was more than enough evidence to back that claim up.

“Urgh, fine,” Gabriel grunted and followed his brother, “Sammy, eyes,” Gabriel thought to warn and Sam slammed his eyelids shut even as two matching brilliant lights seared through them. When the light died down and Sam opened his eyes again there were now three empty vessels crumpled on the edge of the hole.

“Adam better be in Heaven,” Sam murmured as he saw his half-brother’s body slumped, eyes shut, and looking a little too dead for comfort next to Lucifer’s vessel.

“He is,” Chuck promised, “Death pulled him out of the Cage at the same time as you and sent him onwards.”

“Good,” Sam said and moved across to shift the three vessels into a slightly less precarious and more comfortable position. It was clear all three vessels were empty, no human remained in them, but something about them made his fingers itch to set them straight.

“I am sorry Father, for failing,” Castiel murmured from where he sat on a nearby bench.

“For failing in general or specifically?” Chuck asked into nowhere, “Because if you mean the incident in the throne room that wasn’t your fault. The Darkness isn’t stupid, it knew you were the weak point and went after you for that very reason. The same thing would have happened if it had gone for any of the others,”

“I…” Castiel started and then his words seemed to fail him, “I just always seem to be the one to mess up,” He murmured quietly and Sam twitched, wanting to go to his friend but not really knowing what he could do or say to help him.

“Hmm,” Chuck hummed looking distracted as he focused on the unconscious demon, “Hold him for me Castiel,” He thrust the little light at the archangel before Castiel could even think to protest. The light jumped from Chuck’s hand and wrapped its way around Castiel’s before winding its way up to his shoulder. Sam watched, barely able to hold back his laughter, as the little light crackled with indignation and zapped Castiel as it had zapped Gabriel earlier. Castiel winced at the sharp sting but then smiled faintly.

“Right,” Chuck said and laid two hands on Crowley’s chest, “This will probably hurt,” He informed the unconscious demon who definitely couldn’t hear him, “But you’re a demon, so you’ll survive,” He said and then sent a sharp shock into Crowley’s chest. The demon let out a holler of pain as he bolted upright, gasping and blinking harshly.

“What the bloody, shitting hell?!” He demanded looking from Chuck to Castiel to Sam and back.

“Oh good, that worked,” Chuck mused.

“What worked?” Crowley demanded, “Why do I feel like I’ve been kicked in the chest with by a horse?”

“Kicked in the chest by a horse, had your soul jumpstarted with a bolt of pure Creation… Same difference really,” Chuck replied easily.

“I don’t have a soul,” Crowley’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“Hmm… yes, actually you do. Congratulations, you aren’t completely amoral anymore.” Chuck said standing up and then moving over to Castiel. “Failure on its own is irrelevant Castiel. Everyone fails, even me.” He said taking the little light from Castiel’s shoulder and placing it on his own. “It’s what you do to fix it that’s important and as far as that goes… you are well ahead of your siblings. You’ve got some way to go yet, of course you do because no one stops learning, but you’ll get there,”

“Get where?” Castiel asked and Chuck smiled mysteriously.

“Well now, that would be telling and where’s the fun in that?” He asked and Castiel blinked.

“Uh… hate to intrude on the family bonding. But why do I have a soul?” Crowley interjected.

“Apparently that’s my fault,” Sam spoke up then to distract the demon from said family bonding, “The trial,”

“Oh bugger,” Crowley grunted pushing himself to his feet. “Can I get a refund?”

“You sure? That soul’s the only reason you didn’t end up like every other demon in Hell,” Sam said and Crowley’s eyes narrowed.

“Every other demon…? What did you do to my subjects?” Crowley huffed, glaring at Sam who raised his hand in submission.

“Not just me.” He offered which didn’t really help. “Apparently the Darkness can control demons, unless said demon also has a soul. They attacked us while we were trying to complete the ritual. They’re all dead,”

“All of them?” Crowley asked, astonished.

“All of them except those on Earth,” Sam corrected and Crowley looked around at the completely deserted landscape.

“Bollocks.” He sighed. “Is there any reason why we’re stood by the deep black hole of no return?”

“Lucifer and Dean went down to try and find whatever remains of Cain so when we seal the Darkness away again Cain can take the Mark and it will be safe,” Sam explained, “Michael and Gabriel followed them down when we realised that all the dead demons that the Darkness was controlling are now between them and the way out,”

“Right,” Crowley said and edged nervously away from the drop, “You know its utter chaos down there? The deeper you go the wilder the more dangerous. This top layer of Hell is the only one with any sort of organisation.”

“How do you know? Have you been down?” Sam asked and Crowley shook his head.

“There’s a reason it’s a big empty hole separating them out. Demons can’t fly. You go down, you can’t get back up. That’s why dead demons never crop up again,” Crowley explained, “But you can see what’s happening down there. There are seeing pools dotted all over the place, sort of a warning not to kick the bucket because if you think it’s bad up here you don’t know what’s down there,”

“Huh,” Sam said and looked out at the hole, “Well Dean’s got three archangels on his side, he should be fine. Right?” Crowley didn’t answer and when Sam glanced back Castiel was watching with a grim expression as well. Only Chuck didn’t seem affected, but then the glazed over eyes said he wasn’t concentrating on the conversation anyway. Sam only hoped he was focusing on the battle they all knew was going on below.


	15. In which Gabriel confuses Michael and Michael indirectly irritates Lucifer (or in other words, a normal conversation among siblings)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter and the next are my favourites. I am not sorry. At all.

“Has is occurred to you…?” Michael broke off with a grunt as he threw yet another demon off his back that had been going for his more vulnerable wing joints.

“Probably,” Gabriel replied lightly snapping his fingers and five demons vanished before turning around and punching one clean in the face causing it to collapse in a heap and not move again.

“Funny,” Michael sniped throwing out one hand and sending three demons flying back into a group of their peers behind, “Has it occurred to you that every time we kill one of these demons we’re dropping it down on Lucifer’s head?” He asked and Gabriel paused to look at him bizarrely.

“Uh… duh,” he said snapping once more and another half a dozen demons vanished. “That’s why I’ve not been killing them. Have you? Damn Lucifer’s going to hate you after this, even more than he already does I mean,”

“You’re _not_ killing them?” Michael blinked, “Then where do you keep sending them?” He asked watching as Gabriel sidestepped a demon charging from the back. A sledgehammer appeared in his hand and he slammed it into the demon’s back as it passed, sending it flying twenty metres into the ruins of what appeared to be some kind of stadium.

“Uh…” Gabriel looked at his brother in bemusement. “TV land, _duh_. I mean really it’s just ‘Breaking Bad’,” He pointed at a group and snapped his fingers, they vanished, “Game of Thrones,” Another group vanished, “My personal favourite, ‘Pinky and the Brain’.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about but I’m pretty sure that’s a waste of power when we still have to lock the Darkness up,” Michael chided as he cracked the heads of two demons together and sent them unconscious to the floor.

“Meh,” Gabriel shrugged, “This is all just Trickster magic, not grace. I mean I _am_ craving Twizzlers like you wouldn’t believe but not really wasting all that much power,”

“I still can’t believe you went pagan,” Michael pulled a face even as he grabbed one demon and used it as a blunt instrument to beat another insensate. “Don’t you have _any_ sense of decorum?”

“What would I want one of those for?” Gabriel snorted, “By the way, while you were driving Lucy mad indirectly and then complaining about my methods did you notice that the Darkness seems to have… well vanished?” Michael looked up at that statement and looked around. Sure enough the blackness that had been at the edges of their fight, clinging to everything that the light of their graces’ didn’t touch had vanished.

“That isn’t good,” Michael said worriedly, “Do you think it’s followed Lucifer and Dean down?”

“Oh yeah Lucy is going to be in a _wonderful_ mood after this,” Gabriel griped, “What are the chances of him stabbing me twice do you think?”

“Pretty high,” Michael answered distractedly, “We should finish up here and get down. Lucifer can’t face the Darkness alone,”

“I can clean up here if you want to head down now?” Gabriel offered, sensing perhaps this was the time for jokes, but Michael shook his head.

“I don’t like the idea of us splitting up even more; it seems like something the Darkness might take advantage of. I don’t suppose there’s any trickster magic you can use to finish this fight quicker?” He asked glancing around at the legion of demons that still remained.

“Oh _now_ you want me to be the Trickster,” Gabriel snorted but then grinned wickedly, “Sure thing. I have just the idea; I call it _the Taz_ ,” he said, “Stand back,” Michael backed off and Gabriel spread his wings, then he began to spin, faster and faster and faster. Pretty soon there was a whirlwind around the archangel and he shot out across the landscape of Hell.

Everywhere the archangel whirlwind went demons were caught up in the winds and sent flying. Most of them hit rubble and lay still; others hit each other in mid-air and fell to the floor, screaming as limbs shattered. Michael watched appreciatively wandering across after Gabriel to pick off those that weren’t rendered unconscious, not that there were many of them. A few minutes later the whirlwind settled in one spot and slowed, the winds easing until Gabriel appeared in the middle, turning around dizzily.

“Whoa,” The Trickster groaned holding his head in his hands. “Dizzy spell,”

“I’m really not surprised,” Michael said approaching him. “Are you alright?”

“I‘ll be fine, just give me a sec,” Gabriel said shaking his head just slightly and groaning again, “Oh that looks much easier in cartoons. I am _never_ trying that again.”

“Effective though,” Michael said lightly and Gabriel just groaned again, “Come on, we need to go help Lucifer,”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m coming. I may throw up on you, but I’m coming,” Gabriel said and obediently turned to follow Michael towards the next drop down to the third level. They stepped around the bodies of unconscious demons and rubble, checking that there were no demons left awake to block their retreat.

“Once we’ve finished this remind me to come back and throw the filth further down,” Michael said idly, “I know they can’t get back up but I’d feel better if they were even further away,”

“Sure thing, so long as you remind me to empty TV land of them before I put the next lot of unsuspecting hunters in because that would be carnage and I spent a lot of time on those sets,” Gabriel replied, his steps wobbly but gradually getting steadier. Soon they came to a halt at the edge of the next hole. They couldn’t see anything at the bottom but then they didn’t expect to. 

“So what do you think our chances are of us all surviving this?” Gabriel asked.

“Slim to none, why?” Michael asked and Gabriel snorted.

“Just so you know, if I die, you have to pass a message on to everyone for me,” he said and Michael glanced over with a single raised eyebrow.

“What message?” He asked.

“ _So long and thanks for all the fish_ ,” Gabriel sang cheerfully and then jumped. Michael blinked twice, shook his head in bemusement and followed.


	16. The Three Musketeers (Hell edition)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not sorry.

Dean was a hunter, had fought more things than he’d care to mention and seen more fights than he could possibly fight, so he had to admit (reluctantly) that seeing Lucifer fight off no fewer than six demons at once was pretty damn impressive. Especially when that list of demons went from bad (three of the Deadly Sins, Dean didn’t remember which) to worse (Abaddon and Yellow-Eyes) to ‘oh my Chuck we’re all going to die!’ (Alistair and _freaking_ Samhain). Not that this seemed to bother the archangel who seemed quite happy to keep fighting. The bodies of dozens of dead demons at his feet suggested that they were far from the only demons he had been keeping busy.

His grace was burning now, bright and white and impossible and Dean maybe (just maybe) had an inclining of why Lucifer had been called the Morningstar because beyond it, smothering the glow of the hole they had come down was the Darkness. It was hovering just out of reach and seemed reluctant to approach the archangel just letting the demons do its’ work for it.

“So I take it the big menacing thing is the Darkness and we should probably be helping Lucifer right about now?” Cain asked and Dean nodded grimly.

“Yeah only I’m human and weaponless so I’m afraid it’s less ‘we’ helping and more ‘you’?” He said and Cain looked at him with an astonished expression.

“You came down to the third circle of Hell _without a weapon_? What sort of hunter are you?” Cain demanded.

“Hey I didn’t know I was coming down here, else I’d have taken the knife rather than Sam!” Dean protested, “And what do you mean, what sort of hunter am I? I killed you didn’t I?”

“I know, it’s embarrassing,” Cain grumbled but then loped off into the fight, grabbing Yellow-Eyes by the hair and tearing him back away from Lucifer before planting a heavy punch right in his jaw. Dean tried not to find that satisfying but failed, miserably, because damn it he still hated that son of a bitch with a vengeance.

Lucifer on his own was good, Lucifer with Cain’s help was astonishing and Dean knew without doubt that they would win this fight. Or he thought he knew. He watched in horror as shadowy black clouds materialised from the Darkness right about where the way back up to the second level was. Someone, Dean realised, was killing demons and sending them down here right on top of where Lucifer was fighting. Given that there weren’t that many options when it came to the mass slaughter of demons Dean grimaced.

“Someone is getting stabbed when this is over,” he said and cast around for a weapon of some sort. He couldn’t help against the high level demons but most of those dropping down from the second level were only black-eye demons and Dean had been fighting them for years – albeit usually with a weapon that would kill them.

“Dean!” Lucifer shouted over the din of the fight and Dean watched as a silver blade flew through the air in his direction. It glinted in the light of Lucifer’s grace despite the black blood coated on it. Dean jumped, caught it in his right hand and then grinned. He had a weapon (an archangel’s blade at that) and those black-eyed sons of bitches were going down. Without another moment’s hesitation he dived into the fight, blade singing in his hand just as the First Blade had.

“Finally,” Cain grunted, “I thought you were never going to join in,”

“What like that time at your place where you _never_ joined in and left me to kill the demons all by myself?” Dean shot back as he thrust Lucifer’s blade through a demon’s throat.

“That was a test, I wouldn’t have let them kill you… probably,” Cain answered even as he turned from his opponent (Pride? Maybe) to literally rip the head off a black-eye that was trying to sneak up on him.

“Probably my ass,” Dean snorted.

“Girls, girls,” Lucifer intruded even as he landed a very painful looking kick on Alistair that would have any normal man squeaking for a week. (Dean tried very hard not to enjoy that one either and failed miserably) “Handbags away, you can bicker later. Preferably when those morons I unfortunately call my brothers _stop dropping demons on our heads_ ,” He shot a glare up at the hidden drop which had just spilled a bunch more demons down into the third circle.

“Watch who you’re calling girl,” Dean shot back just because he couldn’t let that sort of insult go even when fighting for his life, “ _We_ aren’t the ones famed for our ethereal beauty,” he ducked under the sudden assault of Abaddon from behind him and kicked her over to Cain, if he remembered correctly he had a bone to pick with her. Cain smirked at him in thanks and proceeded to disembowel her with his bare hands. 

“Aww Dean did you just call me pretty?” Lucifer shot back immediately which told Dean he really didn’t care about Cain and Dean bickering and just wanted into the conversation. The narcissist probably just couldn’t take not being the centre of attention. Ridiculous really considering he was fighting four demons at once and had just torn Gluttony’s arm off for what Dean guessed was shits and giggles.

“Well I can’t speak for what you really look like but I’m secure enough to admit that you really rocked the ‘middle-aged suburban Dad with a skin condition’ look. I mean fair’s fair, not many guys can make that look into something that can be described as ‘pretty’,” Dean scoffed taking his own opponent out with a blade to the heart, efficient and quick, _he_ wasn’t a show off like these guys.

“You should have seen his _last_ vessel,” Cain interjected with a blood thirsty grin, “It’s like a cosmic pun, Lucifer’s the prettiest angel so he gets the weirdest fucking vessels. I mean how many nipples did that guy have?”

“I really wouldn’t throw stones if I were you Cain,” Lucifer chimed, “I mean you’re not bad but I’m 90% certain you agreed to kill Abel and become my toy soldier just to get away from your wife. The word ‘harridan’ was invented for her,”

“Oh now man that’s not cool,” Dean started to defend, because there were limits, but Cain interrupted him by throwing Greed right into Yellow-Eyes sending both of them to the floor and then jumping on both of them to pummel them brutally with his fists. Blood splattered everywhere.

“Harridan maybe,” He grunted between strikes, “But damn that woman could take down a bear with nothing but a sharpened stick. Who even cares after that?” Dean and Lucifer shared a look.

“Fair enough,” Dean said and went back to his opponent while Lucifer laughed and tore Alistair’s white eyes out of his eye sockets.

It was about then that there was a rumble, followed by a screech and the Darkness lurched away from the drop as two brilliant lights came hurtling down to join the fray.


	17. Dean’s worst nightmare: Aerial Manoeuvres

“Bro! How’s it hanging?” Gabriel asked as he landed, one foot in Samhain’s face as the demon crumpled to the floor.

“Depends,” Lucifer grunted as he reached forward and tore Alistair’s heart out, letting his body drop to the floor, “Was it you making it rain demons?”

“Nah that was all Michael. He’s slow on the uptake sometimes,” Gabriel answered looking over at Michael who was going through the remaining black-eyes like a tank. Given that most of those demons had died at his hand literally ten minutes ago they were, understandably, running away in terror. “Makes a great bulldozer though,”

“He’s taking all the best sport though,” Cain said as he and Dean approached, both utterly coated with blood but grinning like lunatics. Like that there was definitely a family resemblance despite the generation upon generation between them. Sure enough between the three archangels the demons were dropping swiftly and rapidly.

“Cain! Dude I haven’t seen you in an age, how’s it hanging?” Gabriel turned to the demon.

“I’m dead and my retirement keeps getting invaded by ancient evils,” Cain replied, deadpan, “Could be worse,”

“Well we wouldn’t want you to get bored, right?” Gabriel asked and Cain smirked. “So, uh, now that thing has run out of demons to throw at us whose betting it comes after us itself?” He gestured to the Darkness which appeared to be gathering itself for an assault.

“Uh, no bet. Shall we get out of here already?” Dean said eying it up warily.

“Sure thing, need a lift Cain?” Gabriel offered.

“Thanks,” Cain said letting Gabriel grab him around the waist without hesitation.

“Mikey! We’re flying!” Gabriel shouted over to the last archangel who was mopping up the last demons.

“Ready to fly again?” Lucifer looked at Dean with a look of unholy amusement, “I promise you’re my favourite wingman,”

“Cute,” Dean grunted, “Let’s just get this over with,” He said closing his eyes and bracing himself for the flight. After this he was _never ever_ flying again. Never. No matter how much Sam bitched about it. Two impossibly strong and cold arms wrapped around him once more and then they were off, flying through hurtling speeds. Dean didn’t need to open his eyes to know that the Darkness was reacting to their flight because instead of the bright glow of three archangels around him the world suddenly went dark.

“Hang on, evasive manoeuvres,” Lucifer shouted into Dean’s ear in warning and the hunter barely had time to tense before he was in freefall. Then he slammed into something hard – a chest – and he was flying again. Whoever it was who now held him tucked into a barrel roll that felt like it went on forever and left Dean clinging to the arms that held him.

“Mind your head,” Michael’s voice answered the question as to who had him but not for long before Dean was dropped, again. He ducked automatically, trying not to whimper before something caught him by one leg. He desperately tried not to scream but wasn’t entirely sure he was successful. The blackness was pressing against his closed eyes even more fully now.

Whoever had caught him lurched and then full on threw him through space. This time Dean did scream.

“Relax,” Lucifer said apparently catching him again and tugging him onwards and upwards, “This isn’t the first time we’ve flown the gauntlet with passengers,”

“There was no gauntlet when we came down,” Dean whimpered not even caring about his pride anymore. He just wanted to stop this ride and get off.

“Well no, but do you really think that the only thing stopping dead demons from getting out again is their lack of wings? The answer is no. Any angel who wants a real challenge comes down to fly the gauntlet,” Lucifer laughed loud and bright. “Hang on, another pass. Try not to scream _too_ loudly.” He said and then Dean was flying through the air without an archangel once again.

“Dude, you scream like a girl,” Gabriel said once he was again caught by an archangel, “I’d think you didn’t like flying, except you’re a pretty cool guy so I know that’s a lie,”

“I _HATE_ flying Gabriel!” Dean hollered.

“Huh, so this is like your worst nightmare right?” The Trickster was _laughing_ at him and damn it Dean was going to stake him a thousand times and he didn’t even care that it wouldn’t kill the bastard. “I’d say sorry for what happens next but I’m really not,”

Dean barely had time to think ‘asshole’ before he was once again tossed like a sack of potatoes.

“I know they’re assholes,” Michael said once Dean was safe in his arms, “But they’re just trying to distract you from the very real possibility of us being caught by the Darkness. We’ve run the gauntlet many times, but not at these speeds and not being chased by something even we fear,”

“Michael! Not! Helping!” Dean spat out, clinging on as they span dizzyingly fast through he didn’t even want to know what.

“I don’t see how keeping the truth from you helps things. Besides the screams make it easier to find you in the dark and less likely to miss and drop you,” _asshole_ , Dean thought grimly, _all of them. Assholes_.

Some indeterminate time later Dean was back in Lucifer’s arms again when they changed direction dramatically and levelled off. Dean risked opening his eyes for a second and desperately wished he hadn’t. They were back in the second circle and the ground below them was covered in the unconscious and dead bodies of demons. Or Dean suspected so but couldn’t really tell because of the creeping shadows that were crawling all over them.

The angels sped up, putting distance between them and the Darkness but Dean could tell that the gauntlet (whatever it was) had slowed them down significantly and there was not exactly a big gap. He refused to look back and focused instead on the shaft back up to the first circle which was getting rapidly nearer and nearer. He swallowed heavily and tried to prepare himself for what came next but he was pretty sure _nothing_ could prepare him for another dose of what he had just been through.

Cain, irritatingly, was calm in Michael’s arms, his entire focus on where they were going and getting there as quickly as possible even if he couldn’t do anything to ensure that.

“Screaming is okay,” Lucifer murmured to Dean as they neared the entrance, “But try and remain limp, don’t flail about too much. The gauntlet here is much narrower; if you catch a limb on something then you’re lost. Understand?”

“Yeah,” Dean swallowed again, “I got that,” He forced his body to go limp and closed his eyes again. He really, _really_ didn’t want to see what came next.


	18. Sam realises he’s superfluous to The Plot, Cas fails at being supportive and Crowley still wants a refund

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have finally managed to get the banner art embedded from my [tumblr](http://rasalahuge.tumblr.com/) yay! (embarrassingly I made a very stupid & obvious mistake) so please have a look at in on chapter 1 while you're here

“I don’t like this waiting around,” Sam murmured as he watched Crowley pace back and forth along the edge of the giant hole. Beside him Castiel was shifting nervously, throwing glances over at Chuck every few seconds to see if the Creator’s expression had changed from the distant, vacant expression. “I don’t like that Dean’s neck deep in this and I have to sit out of it.”

“Neither do I,” Castiel admitted. “I feel useless sat waiting here.”

“But you’re like one fourth of the key to this whole thing Cas,” Sam looked at his friend and Castiel snorted.

“Maybe that made sense initially however we have been here long enough that had Father wished he could have brought Raphael back.” His eyes focused on the tiny light curled up and practically purring on Chuck’s shoulder, smug and self-important, “The Darkness is distracted by the others, he could have brought any of them back. I don’t know why he hasn’t,”

“Because he doesn’t need them, he has _you_ ,” Sam said, “Didn’t he say when he started this whole thing that he’d been planning on making you an archangel for a while?”

“So he said,” Castiel murmured.

“You’re important to this Cas. I’m just baggage.” Sam swallowed, “I played baby-sitter to Chuck’s pet light and killed a few demons.” He shook his head, “I just don’t know why I’m here,”

“I’m sure you’re here for a reason,” Castiel insisted, though he didn’t look very certain about that, “Even if it’s not apparent right now,”

“Sure,” Sam said not at all reassured, “See anything Crowley?” he called out to the demon who paused and turned back to them.

“No,” He grunted, “The seeing pools have all gone dark, surprise, surprise.” He glanced nervously at the edge once more and then moved away. “Nothing from the all-seeing one?” He gestured to Chuck and Sam shrugged.

“I’m sort of hoping that if something goes wrong he’ll say something,” The hunter admitted. “You alright Crowley?”

“What? Aside from the fact that I’m out of a job, I apparently have a soul and the fate of the entire universe relies on three archangels who’d gladly smite me in an instant and Dean Winchester? I’m just peachy,” Crowley replied taking a seat.

“Does the soul thing really bother you?” Sam asked and Crowley huffed.

“Actually it explains a few things,” He admitted reluctantly, “Like my appalling show over the last few months since Mother turned up. Good thing is now I know about it I can get on with getting _rid_ of it again. Most souls wither and die when drowning in the blood and screams of innocents,” He said it without inflection but neither human nor angel were fooled.

“I would have thought having a soul would be an advantage in your line of work,” Castiel said, “Are humans not often far more creative when it comes to harming one another than demons?”

“Never really thought about it,” Crowley hummed, “But you may have a point, I mean just look at Hell when I took over. It was like Rack, Iron Maiden, Judas chair, Rack again – great for screams but ripped off from the humans and very unimaginative. Alistair was the only one with any creativity.” The demon leant back, “Why do you suppose that is?”

“Maybe you need a soul to be able to understand the deep horror and suffering that torture causes and therefore understand how to make it _worse_ ,” Sam suggested and Crowley hummed.

“Now Hell has been emptied you have a great opportunity here,” Castiel added sagely, “To rebuild with imagination,” He looked at Sam with a determined look, “It might only take you a few centuries to build something really impressive,”

A few centuries without Hell? Sam would take that any day.

“You two are about as subtle as a brick wall,” Crowley snorted, “I still want a refund but, I suppose, if I’m not going to get one then I’ll just have to make the best of it.” He paused then, “And please, centuries in Hell is like a year on Earth, if that. Don’t get your hopes up on seeing the back of me once this is over,”

“Honestly Crowley at this stage I think we’d actually miss you if you ever left,” Sam said. All three of them paused and shared a look before snorting in disgusted amusement.

“Miss me? Ha, as if,” Crowley scoffed.

“I would gladly watch you burn,” Castiel announced dramatically.

“I’ll settle for cutting your eyes out,” Sam said, “Then your balls… your fingers… the shrivelled black thing you call a heart,”

“Ah Moose! You _do_ care,” Crowley quipped and glanced over at Chuck again. “How long do you think this is going to take?”

“I do not know,” Castiel said, “I suppose it depends on how many demons the Darkness throws at them and how easy it is to fly the gauntlet with passengers while being chased,”

“The gauntlet?” Crowley and Sam turned to look at him in confusion.

“The shafts down between the different circles,” Castiel gestured to the hole, “Going down they are simply bottomless holes. Flying back up they are a vast maze of traps and dangers. It’s one of the most challenging flights an angel can do. As far as I know only the archangels have ever flown the gauntlet with passengers before and never at full speed while being chased,”

“Ohhh,” Sam turned to look at the gaping black maw, “Dean is _not_ going to be happy,”

“Why’s that?” Crowley looked at him oddly.

“He hates flying,” Sam said miserably. Demon and archangel looked at the hole and then shared a look.

“This, I believe, will be interesting,” Castiel said.

“Hilarious, the word you are looking for is _hilarious_ ,” Crowley corrected watching the gap more eagerly now.

“So long as you keep your amusement contained until the Darkness is contained it can be anything you like,” Chuck’s voice suddenly intruded and the three of them turned back to see Chuck standing and stretching out stiff limbs. “They are starting the second gauntlet but they don’t have much of a lead on the Darkness, we will be cutting it fine. Castiel you need to be in position when they arrive,”

“Yes Father,” Castiel said already moving towards the points on the sides of the hole which they had marked out earlier to take his position.

“Sam, Crowley,” Chuck turned to them, “When they come through they will be coming fast. They won’t have time to be gentle when dropping Dean and Cain off, you need to try and catch them and keep them out of the way until the ritual is over,”

“Right,” Sam and Crowley shared a look but nodded. They didn’t really have a choice not to.

“Sam take him,” Chuck said and reached up for the little light and handed it over. Sam took it carefully, trying not to irritate it too badly now it had lost its prized position on Chuck’s shoulder, and transferred it to his own. Once the light was secure Chuck nodded and moved to his own position. Then they waited.


	19. Burst ears and bleeding eyes: just another day around angels

Hell was quiet and still for the first time in its history. The entire realm had been purged but for a human, an archangel and a demon. There was probably a joke there but none of them could think of it right now.

It wasn’t however a joke. Not when as they waited they started to hear something that sounded like thousands upon thousands of wings beating hard and fast, as if a flock of birds were fleeing for their lives. Not when the sound of someone far too familiar screaming drifted up. Definitely not when three brilliant points of light appeared in the dark of the hole, rapidly growing in size as they flew upwards dodging and dancing around obstacles invisible to those watching from above.

“Crowley eyes,” Sam murmured. Human and demon turned away from the drop and covered their eyes as well as they could, just in time for three archangels in their true forms hurtled up out of the gauntlet.

“ _SAAAMMM-Y!_ ” Dean’s voice hollered in desperation and Sam turned, eyes still screwed up against the light, and opened his arms. A second later something heavy and squirming fell on top of him and he hit the floor hard.

“Ooof,” Crowley’s voice from somewhere next to him indicated he, too, had just been used as a pillow for a less than ideal landing.

Then the blinding light vanished and the world went briefly silent. Sam rolled over so that Dean was no longer squashing him (he assumed it was Dean, the person on top of him smelled like Dean) and risked opening his eyes.

“ _Oh!_ ” He exclaimed, “Guys, guys. You gotta see this,” And they really did, because there were four archangels in their true forms and Sam’s eyes were not burning out. It seemed that some property of the Darkness, which had followed the archangels up, seemed to swamp the light of grace just enough that it was no longer blinding. Four enormous ethereal beings stood, hundreds upon hundreds of wings stretching out behind them, at four of the five points of the star. This time, rather than just bathed in light of varying qualities they were light. Sam sat transfixed and from the gasps he figured Crowley and Cain were too as they turned to look.

Typically Dean broke the moment with his usual tact.

“Ground,” Dean gasped his eyes still screwed up as he hugged the ground, “Sweet, sweet ground. I am never leaving you again,” Sam glanced at his brother and screwed his face up as he watched Dean actually kiss the solid ground.

“Dude we’re still in Hell. That’s disgusting,” Sam said and kicked him, “Seriously Dean _look at this_ ,” he demanded and Dean groaned but rolled over onto his back and opened his eyes.

“They’re crazy Sammy, utterly crazy and insane and… _holy shit_ ,” Dean bolted upright into a sitting position as he looked at the angels. “Holy _fucking_ shit,”

“Quite literally in this case,” Crowley added from Dean’s other side.

The Darkness was fighting back now but the archangels would not waver, not this time. Not when there was nothing to distract them. At the fifth point Chuck seemed to glow brighter and brighter until his very skin seemed to be alight, straining to contain all that brilliance.

On Sam’s shoulder the little light strained and tried to reach for the others, there was a plaintive longing in its movements as it flowed down Sam’s arm and perched on his knee, still reaching.

“Yeah I know.” Sam said patting it gently, “Sucks to be left on the side lines to watch doesn’t it?” He asked out loud.

“You know it’s sort of pretty,” Cain commented, “For angels I mean,”

The ritual didn’t seem to involve a great deal except the four archangels and Chuck standing around the Darkness as it tried to escape the light but the four witnesses assumed that there was more going on that they just couldn’t comprehend. The light the archangels were emitting seemed to slowly weave together creating some kind of net and the Darkness struggled even more. It lashed out; shadows reaching for anything and everything it could get its hands on.

The four watchers didn’t realise it had noticed them until Crowley yelped and was suddenly dragged forward.

“No, no, _no, nono, nonononono!_ ” The King of Hell babbled as he was dragged by the shadows closer and closer to the point of no return. Crowley wasn’t an angel, soul or not there would be no coming back if he fell down that hole.

“Oh no you don’t!” Dean lunged for him, Cain too, and grabbed onto his waist and shoulder respectively, “No one gets to kill you but me,” Dean grunted heaving backwards and Crowley’s progress towards the hole slowed. Sam lunged forward to help but swerved at the last minute as he noticed one of the shadows going for him, or rather for the light wrapped around his fingers.

“Not a chance,” Sam said turning his back on the shadows so they splashed against him harmlessly, “Get in my shirt,” He commanded the light who quailed, looking terrified, “It’s dark in there but it’s not _Dark_ -dark,” Sam told the little light which hesitated a second longer, just long enough for them both to notice more shadows coming for them. It dived into his shirt and Sam curled up into the smallest possible ball protecting the little light hiding inside him. The shadows trying to grab at the light and extinguish it couldn’t get past his body.

“ _Sammy!_ ” The Darkness was dragging Dean and Cain along for the ride now and Crowley’s legs were over the edge of the hole as the demon scrambled to cling onto something, anything, to slow his progress further.

“Busy Dean!” Sam ducked his head down and prayed that the Darkness wouldn’t think to just drag him off the edge too and take the little light down with him.

“ _ **ENOUGH!**_ ” Chuck’s voice thundered through Hell echoing and bouncing off deserted buildings. Suddenly the light the archangels and Chuck were emitting became blinding again, like a huge solid wall of light and the Darkness screeched.

**I will _NOT_ go back!**

“ _You are done here!_ ” Chuck replied. Sam, Dean, Crowley and Cain all screwed their eyes shut but there was nothing they could do about their ears.

The four true voices of four archangels rang out; thunderous, freezing, rumbling and ceaseless. A cacophony of noise and song roared around them.

The two humans and two demons screamed as their ear drums burst.

The light intensified until even their eyelids were not protection enough and their eyes began to bleed.

It was too much, too immense. They were going to die here...

 

Then suddenly it was over.


	20. Huh, everyone survived. Go team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 500 hits! And I haven't even finished posting it yet! You guys are the best. This is the penultimate chapter. I will confess, I will miss this when it's over but then again we will soon have season 11 so I won't be sad for long.

It was as if the Darkness had never existed. The shadows stopped tugging. Dean, Cain and Crowley went flying backwards at the sudden lack of resisting force and Sam was able to uncurl just slightly.

Then something else, a pulse of warmth spread over them.

Their ears tingled, a constant white noise replacing the silence before whispers of sound broke back through. Their eyes stopped bleeding though the light beyond them was still painful through their eyelids.

_Its okay now, you’re safe._ The pulse seemed to say without saying anything at all.

Crowley and Cain were the first to recover, coming up as though they were swimming through a thick dense fog until they could open their eyes and see the result of the ritual. They struggled to their feet, gaping in shock, not sparing a thought for the two humans still recovering on the floor.

Hell was in ruins. It had already been deserted but now it looked as though someone had set of a bomb, or rather _four_ bombs. The archangels were back in their vessels, all four collapsed where they had stood, unconscious. Only Chuck remained upright but even he looked tired, his eyes ancient and impossible, he was cradling something in his hand and both demons knew what it was immediately.

“Cain,” Chuck said and the Father of Murder stepped forward towards the Lord, head bowed and arm already bared. “I know it’s not very fair, you’ve only just gotten free of this thing,” Chuck said quietly, “But there’s no one else. Lucifer and Dean can’t be trusted with it,”

“I knew this was coming the moment Dean told me he had destroyed the Mark,” Cain answered, “I’m dead, that doesn’t actually bother me. At least down there I can’t hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve it,”

“Thank you,” Chuck said and then placed his hand and the thing he was cradling in it on Cain’s forearm. The demon roared in pain and then in wrath and his eyes flashed black, reflecting the pure Darkness of the thing on his arm. When Chuck pulled back the Mark remained, brilliant scarlet red for a long moment before it faded into something deeper, bloodier. Cain gasped in pleasure and pain before his eyes flickered back to their normal brown.

As if pressing the Mark into Cain’s arm was a trigger the four archangels all groaned out in unison, coming too.

“Oww,” Gabriel moaned out first, “That _hurt_ ,”

“Huh, we survived.” Lucifer said in clear amazement, “Go team,” Then he shut his eyes and clearly decided to pretend he hadn’t woken up at all.

“Sam? Dean?” Cas was the first to struggle upright while Gabriel and Michael seemed to try and find the motivation to do so. The newest archangel looked over at his friends who were, more or less, now able to squint around and hear things – albeit as though they were underwater.

“We’re here Cas,” Dean said, too loud but then it wasn’t as though he could differentiate between volumes yet, “Fuck, my head’s ringing,” He grunted holding onto it.

“Hey little light dude, you still with us?” Sam prodded at his shirt. The little light crawled out, trembling with apparent fear, and proceeded to bury itself into Sam’s hair and refuse to move. “Guess so,” Sam said, exhaustion creeping into his voice. “Looks like we’re all present and accounted for,”

“It’s a miracle,” Dean grunted.

“It’s something,” Michael added quietly.

“I demand sugar, _all_ the sugar,” Gabriel huffed even as Castiel managed to struggle to his feet and stumble around the hole to where his friends were sat on the floor, neither caring to try for anything further.

“ _Shhh!_ ” Lucifer hissed, “ _Sleeping_ ,”

Chuck looked out over all of them and chuckled, warm and pleased if still clearly exhausted. He turned to Cain who shrugged.

“If it’s not too much trouble, can I have my weapon before I go jumping down there?” He nodded to the hole and Chuck nodded.

“Castiel, Cain’s weapon if you don’t mind?” Chuck said and Castiel groaned, clearly not wanting to move again but obediently pulled the First Blade from his trench coat and tossed it over to Cain.

“Much obliged,” The demon nodded to Castiel before turning to Dean, “I better not see you down there again Dean.”

“Like _hell_ am I going down there again, getting back up is a _bitch_ ,” Dean snorted and Cain returned it. “Nice seeing you again Old Man,”

“You too kid,” Cain said and then looked over at Lucifer, “Hey dickhead,”

“ _Fuck off Cain_ ,” Lucifer grumbled still trying desperately to pretend he was unconscious.

“Yeah I’ll miss you too honey,” Cain scoffed, “Don’t bother visiting,”

“As if,” Lucifer scoffed. Cain chuckled darkly, saluted Chuck with his weapon and then promptly jumped into the hole with an insane laugh.

“Crazy, _crazy_ assholes,” Dean muttered glaring at the hole and then shuffling away from it several feet.

“Is anyone going to find me sugar?” Gabriel complained from the floor, “Because if not I’m going to get it myself and fuck you guys,”

“Gabriel, if we had sugar we’d be eating it ourselves out of pure spite,” Sam shouted at him and the archangel lifted one hand to gesture in his general direction obscenely.

“Decorum, Gabriel, find some,” Michael complained and Gabriel just shifted to gesture in _his_ direction instead. The Trickster heaved a heavy sigh and shoved himself into a more or less upright position.

“Right,” Gabriel sighed, “I need sugar. Also I dislike most of you and would rather be anywhere else but here so… don’t call me, I’ll call you and all that jazz. ‘Cept Dad, obviously, because I’m not stupid.” He saluted lazily to Chuck who just smiled, “Laterz,” Gabriel added and then snapped his fingers and he vanished into thin air.

“Lucifer?” Crowley said moving to sit down heavily next to the Winchesters.

“Stop talking to me!” Lucifer complained loudly, “I’m _trying_ to pass out again,”

“Want Hell back?” Crowley offered and Lucifer opened on eye lazily, he glanced around at the destruction and thought about it for a minute.

“You know what Crowley? You keep it. It’s far too high maintenance for my tastes,” Lucifer replied closing his eye again. Crowley huffed a laugh.

“Why does that not surprise me?” Crowley snorted.

“So now what?” Dean asked no one in particular.


	21. An archangel, a demon and two hunters sit drinking whiskey in Hell

“Now we clean up,” Chuck said walking over towards them, turning his back on Michael and Lucifer for now. “Crowley the rings if you please?” He held out his hands in silent request that was more like an order. Crowley grunted but pulled the four rings of the horsemen out of his pocket and handed them over. Lucifer and Michael made identical noises of disgust and concern. Apparently mention of the rings was more than enough motivation to get them moving because they both sat up then and shuffled further away from the hole and their Father.

Chuck however ignored them and simply broke the rings apart putting three into his own pocket before turning the fourth over in his hand.

“Dean,” He said and Dean looked up, “Here, catch,” He said and tossed the ring at him. Dean fumbled slightly, still not seeing very well, but managed to catch it. He peered down intently before blinking several times.

“This is Death’s ring,” He said stupidly.

“Yes it is,” Chuck said, “You killed Death so you get to replace him. You’ve done it before right? Then you’ll be fine.” He said and Dean swallowed heavily.

“Yeah I knew that was coming back to bite me in the ass. Dude, I am literally the worst possible choice for this, you know that right?” He asked and Chuck smiled at him.

“You’ll be fine,” He repeated firmly. Then he tilted his head to one side. “Do you remember the whole Free Will thing… and the _lack_ of it right now?” His voice held an edge of warning and Dean sighed but obediently put the ring on the finger of his right hand. “Good,” Chuck said and then turned to Sam and held out his hand again, “Come on little one,” He said speaking to the light.

It trembled in Sam’s hair and buried itself further in, tangling the strands up into some kind of bizarre nest. Sam winced as it tugged on some of the finer strands.

“You want to stay with Sam?” Chuck asked and the light hesitated, indecisive, “You can if you want, he _did_ save your life,”

“Uh is that a good idea? I mean he’s like a baby angel right? He’ll grow into a not-so-baby angel?” Sam asked, “I already had my eyes and ears blown up today, not exactly thrilled about it happening again,”

“Oh it’ll be a century before he’s big enough to need a vessel unless I speed things up,” Chuck said, “It’ll do him good to hang around with humans until then.”

“Uh, right,” Sam said clearly realising he was going to be a babysitter for the indefinite future whether he wanted to or not. The little light zapped the back of his neck making him jump but Sam got the distinct impression that was pretty much how it was going to show affection as well as irritation.

“ _You couldn’t have realised that sooner?!_ ” Lucifer voice screeched, intruding on the conversation and they all turned to look at where Lucifer and Michael were now on their feet and apparently arguing, “You just _had_ to rain dozens of demons on our heads _first_? How much of a moron _are_ you?”

“I _apologised_ ,” Michael shot back, fists clenched and looking very much like he wanted to punch Lucifer in the face, “Which is more than _you’ve_ ever done. It was a mistake! It wasn’t as if I thought, ‘oh let’s make life that much harder for Lucifer for fun’ like, oh, I don’t know… _you_ did every time I _tried to do my job_ ,”

Chuck watched them argue and let out a long heartfelt groan.

“Fuck my life,” He said in such a plaintive tone that it immediately lost any and all humour value. “What was I even _thinking_?” He shot a despairing look at the Winchesters and their friends before heading over. “ _What_ did I tell you two about fighting?!” He shouted catching the attention of the quarrelling archangels.

Sam, Dean, Castiel and Crowley shared matching looks and mutually decided not to even ask let alone get involved.

“So, I don’t suppose anyone has any booze?” Dean asked idly and Crowley snorted but pulled a flask from his pocket.

“It’s spelled to be bottomless,” He assured the hunter who took it in relief and took one long swig.

“Thank Chuck,” Dean replied with only a small amount of irony. He looked sideways at his brother and then at the archangel and demon flanking them. “Team Free Will huh. How about we kick his habit of continually accidentally starting the end of the world?”

“Habit?” Sam snorted taking the flask and taking his own drink. “I thought it was practically a business model by this stage,”

“Lousy business, we’re not even getting paid for it.” Crowley commented as Sam handed the flask to Castiel. The archangel snorted but drank anyway and then looked longingly at it.

“Still tastes like molecules,” He lamented and Sam clapped him on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry Cas, we’ll figure it out. After all, if we’re quitting the end of the world business we’ll have plenty of spare time,” He said earning snorts from the rest of the Team.

“Spare time, what’s that?” Dean asked, “Is it like this mythical thing called a vacation I keep hearing about but never getting?”

“Dean’s the new Death, I have to rebuild Hell, you’re babysitting a baby archangel and Cas needs to take some lessons in controlling his new powers,” Crowley added reaching across to take the flask back for his own drink, “And let’s not forget that Mummy dearest is out there with the Codex,”

“Plus all the normal hunts,” Dean added. “We’re never going to get to retire are we?”

“You’d be bored in a week if you retired,” Castiel said with absolute certainty.

“True,” Dean agreed and then glanced at his companions, “A toast? To Team Free Will?”

“Team Free Will,” Crowley agreed, “Screwing the world over one Apocalypse at a time,”

Team Free Will sat on a pile of rubble beside an endless hole into the depths of Hell and watched God ream out two bickering archangels, sharing a never ending flask of whiskey between them.

…

“Hey Dean?”

“Yeah Sammy?”

“If Chuck’s God, you do realise we are _never_ going to see the end of those damn _Supernatural_ books?”

 

“ _Son of a **bitch!**_ ”

 

** THE END **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is DONE! Just like to say, again, thanks to everyone whose been reading this and stuck with it. Hope the ending didn't disappoint. It's been a wild ride and hopefully I've helped make the wait for season 11 just a little better!


	22. Epilogue: And they all lived happily ever after

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So after some comments about a sequel/my headcanon for what happens next I decided to write a short epilogue of what everyone did next. Please enjoy and if you want to chat headcanons or season 11 just swing by [my tumblr](http://rasalahuge.tumblr.com/) and I will be more than happy to chat about it.

After Chuck ended Michael and Lucifer’s latest argument he placed an embargo on them – they are not allowed to be in the same galaxy unless they are able to carry out a civil conversation. Lucifer took this to heart and promptly disappeared off to the Pegasus Galaxy. As he went he was cackling about Atlantis and life-sucking Wraiths. Michael thinks he’s probably committing genocide again but Chuck seems more amused than concerned so he reluctantly lets it go.

Michael, as the only archangel to stick around, is forced into being Castiel’s tutor in learning how not to blow up the universe with his new powers. However in return he demands that Castiel teach Michael about humanity. This proves to be a mistake when Castiel introduces Michael to the internet. While searching for the Winchester Gospels Michael falls head first into tumblr and doesn’t come back out. These days whenever he is seen by his family or the Winchester’s he is wearing an expression torn between confusion and disgust however he has also become somewhat aggressive about standing up against social injustices. His tumblr followers think he’s an adorable moron. (He does _not_ ship Michifer, he _doesn’t_ and no one can persuade him otherwise. Destiel however? That he can get behind)

Castiel, between lessons with Michael and dropping by to check on the Winchesters, has decided to embark on an epic quest. He’s not quite sure what this epic quest is yet or what the end result will be however Charlie was quite insistent that everyone go on one at some point and he’d like to honour her with his. Especially now Heaven finally seems to be fixing itself and there’s no major disaster looming.

Sam and Raphael have a rocky start, given that Sam has no idea on how to look after a baby archangel, however after a crash course from Michael and a lifetime’s supply of manna they settle into a nice routine. Sam eventually persuades Raphael not to hide in his hair in public but settle around his wrist like some sort of awesome glowstick bracelet. He’s still hunting but now if he gets pinned by something, a vampire, ghost etc. he has an angry archangel baby to rescue him. In return he buys Raphael a night light that he can curl up around while Sam is sleeping because the dark terrifies him and protects Raphael from curious animals, especially cats, because he’s just the right size to be a mouthful.

Dean gets shanghaied by a large group of reapers insistent that he learns how to do his job _properly_. He is surprisingly good at it though every time he’s called to help a child pass on he feels terrible but he learned his lesson last time and doesn’t try to mess things around (too much, there were a few times when he took an abuser rather than the kid but while exasperated his reapers mostly let him get away with it so long as it doesn’t happen _too_ often). He still goes on hunts with Sam except Sam now gets frustrated with him because he can take one look at a dead body and know what killed them and ghosts tend to flee from him rather sharpish. One day he might also learn how to not accidentally kill his brother when Sam touches him and be forced to call on Cas or Michael to resurrect him (again).

After everything calmed down Chuck visited Heaven and offered to make Hannah an archangel so that she had more authority over the host. Hannah, having seen Castiel’s terrible attempts at control and remembering the mess the original archangels made, refuses but politely asks if it was perhaps possible to return the hosts’ ability to fly because getting the injured angels from Hell to Heaven without wings was a pain in the ass. Chuck is amused and agrees and leaves Hannah in charge to go back to whatever it was he was doing before.

Metatron, at Hannah’s command, is chained to a desk in an office and forced to do paperwork. When he complains Hannah insists that Chuck may have allowed his grace to be returned but said nothing about forgiveness. This is Metatron’s punishment, to do all of Heaven’s paperwork until the hosts’ wrath fades. He isn’t pleased but he can hardly do anything about it except make passive aggressive comments on said paperwork. At least it isn’t a cell.

Crowley has precisely 73 demons left. It was 74 but one idiot thought that Hell’s destruction and abandonment by its creator meant that the throne was up for grabs. None of the others have been stupid enough to try again. The first thing Crowley did (after killing the idiot) was erect a ten foot security fence around the Pit-Of-No-Return complete with metal spikes, barbed wire and watch towers. It won’t stop dead demons going down but it will make sure he’s never nearly dragged down again. (He remembers to put in a gate, just in case, but this is locked at all times and guarded by two of the three hell hounds that survived). He then starts the long, difficult rebuilding whistling while he does so because by Chuck Sam and Castiel were right, having a soul has given him _ideas_.

Cain, down on the third level, has come to understand that he can’t just go around slaughtering demons because then he’ll have to go down to the fourth circle then the fifth and so on as he runs out of things to kill which frankly sounds like far too much hard work. Instead he decides to create a kingdom where he can torture as much as he likes to slate the Darkness but also not kill because then he won’t lose any of his sport. The Kingdom of Cain bares a striking resemblance to Rome at its peak (Cain may have spent some time as a gladiator, he was _very_ good at it) and hosts regular ‘hunger games’ style events. Except Cain _always_ wins.

Meg and Ruby, during the assault, were on the second level of Hell (where black-eyed demons go when they die). They managed to avoid Michael’s bulldozer of death and instead got sent to TV land by Gabriel. On arrival the Darkness’ hold on them was broken and, after spending some time slaughtering characters in fashion shows for their clothes, decided to break out before the archangel returned them to Hell. They came out on Earth, in the warehouse Sam and Dean confronted Gabriel in. After some discussion they decided to ditch Hell and retire to Hawaii. They run a vast criminal network between them and have their own personal harem. In between trying to assassinate one another and orgies with the harem they bond over cocktails and those _fucking_ Winchesters. Lucifer, it should be noted, has a standing invitation and he occasionally takes advantage. He sneaks to Earth when Michael isn’t looking and sunbathes on the beach with the girls talking about fashion and make-up and boys and doing each other’s nails. (Lucifer too has discovered shipping except he gleefully _does_ ship Michifer and regularly trolls his brother’s tumblr just for the reaction)

What happens to Gabriel after leaving Hell isn’t clear. The next time he’s seen he is passed out in a ditch in 10th century Scotland. He is wearing nothing but a fluorescent orange mini-skirt with the words ‘sex god’ written across his chest in bright red lipstick. Around him are the remains of a ‘lifetimes supply’ of Hershey chocolate bars. He is found by a pair of witches and a pair of wizards and, on waking, he mutters dire warnings about sleeping dragons. After he recovers from his sugar-induced hangover it becomes a running gag between him and his new friends to the point where it accidentally becomes the motto for the school his friends have built. To this day Gabriel blames Kali for all of it. (Gabriel also sometimes drops by Hawaii when Lucifer is there and he, Lucifer, Meg and Ruby spend hours talking boys. Meg usually ends up disgusted that she’s surrounded by Sam Girls)

And Chuck? Well Chuck watches it all and smiles, silently reinstates Free Will without telling anyone and then goes back to his writing. After all those guys in the French Mistake verse are a few seasons ahead and that won’t do at all. If anyone needs him he’ll be buried under drafts of the next several dozen Winchester Gospels.


End file.
